Draconia Claw
by Cardboard Pixie
Summary: (A what if story) After being exiled from Fairy Tail for failing to kill Acnologia, the slayers and exceed's have to find a new guild, but in the end, they make one. Draconia Claw- the guild that exists for one purpose. To slay Acnologia for good.
1. Intro

_**Prolouge**_

* * *

Nobody could honestly blame the Master; seven years had been a shock to everyone. Nobody was really to blame for the tragedy's that occurred on Tenroujima. Nobody expected what happened in the master's fury, and _nobody_ expected the changes to last.

* * *

_Two weeks previous_

"YOU THREE" The third guild master yelled out, his fist clenched tightly at his side as he tried to calm his rage. "YOU CALL YOURSELF DRAGON SLAYERS?" The master finally gave up, pointing at the three who were lined up in front of the master. "YOU, YOU DARE CALL YOURSELF FAIRY TAIL MAGES?" Natsu winced as the words sliced through his thoughts.

"M-master" Mira tried to stop the old man's rampage. She knew how he felt; seven years left them _all_ in the blink of an eye. The three slayers _included_. In that time the guild they were so proud of was all but destroyed, the name dragged through the mud. Tenroujima was one problem after another; however, the finishing blow to them that day was the dragon Acnologia. The one their '_dragon slayers'_ failed to take down.

_'Sure, tell them to do extra training, but this is too far, right?'_ Gray was very aware of how Natsu must be feeling; his nakama became his reason to carry on after Igneel left. Before he met Fairy Tail, he was wandering without a real purpose in life, so hearing how he let them all down would be killing him inside.

They knew it had to hurt Gajeel and Wendy, too. The iron dragon slayer finally made friends in the guild, sure he was arrogant and brash but he would fight to the death to protect Fairy Tail now. With Wendy, who had been abandoned so many times before, she finally found people who would love her. Now, she was being thrown away again. Several looks passed between him, Erza and Lucy. They all knew it was wrong but they couldn't exactly speak against the guild master…

"NATSU DRAGNEEL, GAJEEL REDFOX, WENDY MARVEL! YOU ARE ALL HEREBY EXILED FROM FAIRY TAIL" the master bellowed out. Silence followed for a few moments before a wall of noise appeared. People defending the three against those who agreed with the master, was painful to see what had become of the guild. "SHUT UP, BRATS!" the master yelled out to everyone. "My word is final, take your belongings and go" and with that final word, the master walked off with Marco to talk about the guild finance as Wendy let out a desperate wail/sob.

* * *

_Present time_

Gray was pissed. The guild was eerily quiet, less fights broke out without the Salamander. Gray was even starting to challenge Erza to create a bit of racket but each time he grew more and more dissatisfied. He _missed_ his best friend. It's only going to be another couple of weeks, right? Not that anyone knew where the three mages and their exceed partners went to…


	2. Moving on

**_I am not Hiro Mashima, thus own nothing *^*_****_I wish I was though /kicked._**

* * *

"ne, Natsu, wake up please…" Happy's voice shook as he shook his partner's body. "Please Natsu, we gotta keep going" They were camped in pretty dense woodland. It had been about a month since they were exiled from Fairy Tail and since then they tried to find a new guild, far enough away from Fairy Tail but since two of them were all but allergic to transport, they alternated between walking and flying.

"mmm, five more minutes" The pink haired boy muttered, swatting Happy's paw away.

"come on, Salamander, gotta keep going, You've been nappin' for far too long" Gajeel spoke for the first time in a while. Since the incident, they swore to get stronger. Talking doesn't make you stronger, actions do. It was a comfortable silence between them most of the time, the cats being the most talkative.

The fire mage reluctantly got up. Dragging his feet as moved. They were all tired, the last time they had a proper night's sleep was _literally_ seven years ago as it was before the Tenrou incident. When Happy figured that out, he cried for a good few hours. They _really_ needed a good nap.

After a few more hours of walking deeper into the forest, Wendy began to lose her stamina. Carla kept nagging her but the young girl couldn't hear anything. Her ears were ringing louder than ever. She focused on placing one foot in front of another.

Gajeel kept a wary eye on both Natsu and Wendy in particular. They each carried their exceed companion so they didn't have to worry about the cats falling weary. However, the girl was putting on an air of being fine but her stamina was starting to lag. He turned to Natsu, briefly checking his condition. Since they were exiled they started to get on better. It started with all the fights and punches, leaving each other half dead, name calling- well, everything. It quickly progressed to a state of comfortable companionship after they noticed how similar they were, in weird ways.

"You okay, Salamander?" Gajeel's rough voice cut through silence. Natsu was about to reply when a thud echoed through the forest. In the second he took his eye of the girl, she passed out. 'Fucking typical' he groaned.

"WENDY" Natsu yelled. He practically threw himself over to his friend's side. "Wendy, you okay? Come on Wendy, your stronger than this"

"stop shaking her!" Carla yelled. She was utterly fed up of their companion's stupidity.

Natsu turned to the small white exceed. "If I don't we can't tell if she's dead or not" The idiotic mage reasoned. "She isn't answering, SHE'S DEAD GAJEEL WHAT DO WE DO!?" Gajeel started to panic himself, _'d-dead?!' _

"Or…you could have checked her breathing?" Everyone turned to the black cat. Damn. Lily made a good point sometimes. Wendy's eyes slowly opened, blinking a few times. She mumbled something incoherent. There was a sharp pain in her neck; like a bug bite. She ran her hand over and found a sharp metal dart in her '_poison_?'

"N-nin" if they weren't freaked out that she passed out, they would have laughed. It sounded like something a small creature would say. She paused, still trying to focus, when her eyes shot open.

"BEHIND YOU!" she warned, in time for Gajeel to pivot around and strike with an iron fist. Tons of cloaked bandits surrounded them.

"Shit, this is a pain" Natsu complained. Sure he loved fighting, but he really was to tired for this. "why didn't we smell them?"

"You fell in our trappppp~" one very oversized man sang out (in a voice that made Natsu have flashbacks to master bob). "Now, pick, money or lives?"

"bull shit, You don't know who you're messing with" Natsu was literally burning with rage "Roar of the Fire dragon!" He spewed fire out at the closest unlucky villains. A whistling noise shot past and Natsu fell to the ground.

"SALAMANDER!" Gajeel yelled out. Things weren't looking so great now, he turned his arm into a long metal pole, hitting rows and rows of them, but without knowing who their attacker was, it was hard to concentrate, or stay safe. It seemed that for every one he knocked out, three more would come back. "What the hell kinda magic is this crap? Lily, get them away!" The black exceed nodded. Grabbing the two mages in his battle form and dragging them off.

Gajeel was S class mage in his phantom lord days; nobody could deny he was damned strong. However, a ever increasing number of opponents was causing issues for the Kurogane, simply as didn't have enough time to figure out the main threat.

"_Claws of the earth dragon_" a gentle voice rang out, it was pretty quiet, but the slayers sensitive ears detected it. A mass of vines and tree roots shot up from the ground, disabling at least twenty of their opponents. "Hey big guy!~" the disembodied voice rang out from the right. Gajeel turned and pointed to himself. "Yea! you, ya gunna lend me a hand or what?" The laughter in the person's tone reminded him of a fairy. He wasn't sure why, perhaps the childish voice made him think that way.

Gajeel didn't need asking again, though. "Iron dragon's club!" He cast, knocking out a large portion of the bandits. Most seemed to disappear, leaving one very battered mage on the floor.

"Don't under estimate the nose of a slayer" Gajeel muttered. They smelt just like the forest, but once he caught a wiff of the illusion magic, he just needed some support. '_Come to think of it, who was that?_' he glanced around. _'I'll have to kill that fairy…' _Gajeel was not prepared to let his nakama fall into trouble. Lily was always like family to him, but everyone in their small group was sort of family now.

Not like he could be _too_ picky, since they only had each other right now. Apart from the occasional squirrel that Wendy would become attached to, but Natsu had a really annoying habit of trying to cook them. Gajeel wasn't even sure how he was the one that got bitten.

"Your nose is annoying" The voice rang out. He turned to see a girl of Wendy's height step into view. Her scent was that of the forest, although this one was natural, not forced. "Yaho~" The girl rang out in a sing song voice. Her fingers wiggling as she waved at him. '_Fangs_?' He noted, as she gave a wide Natsu like grin.

Gajeel stared at the girl. She was pretty damn short and scrawny, looked like a sharp wind would blow her right away. Her skin was the colour of dried mud; a sort of soft tanned colour that was a few shades darker than Natsu's. A mass of deep brown dreadlocks fell down her back, with a few noticeable dark olive coloured ones in front of her ears. Her grassy green eyes were opened wide at him, in a sort of expression that reminded him of an awestruck child.

"Alza!" A voice rang out "Sylvette and Nori found weird people!" The Kurogane stared wide eyed as a small white and brown exceed threw itself at the girl. Its feline body was shuddering as it cried on the girls slender shoulders.

"No way!" Alza smiled. "Hey big guy, wanna see your friends? I bet they are your friends~!" She grinned at the cat "Was there a dark kitty? Err.. lulu?" He sighed. She looked oblivious; the vacant expression reminded him of Natsu. However, she was a threat especially if her Nakama had his friends.

"Alza! That guy looks scaryyyyy" The cat cried harder her. "These people are dangerous! They're slayers to, but they aren't safe like you guys areee!" It's loud wailings were getting annoying. Gajeel was so close to killing the damned thing when the girl held out a hand at him.

"If you have my friends I'll rip out yer damned thro-" He started to threaten the spindly girl in front of him.

"Hey, my name is Alza, Just Alza No last name. I'm The Earth dragon slayer and this is Popi, My Exceed~" She summarized, she sounded even squeaker since she spoke faster "I think we have your friends, but I'm not sure. My friend is a bit forgetful you know? She might have found em and then lost em again! Anyway, big guy! come with me?" It all sort of fell out her mouth at once; Gajeel just stared as he tried to make sense of what she was saying.

"T… yeah take me to them. If they're hurt, I'll do more than rip out yer' throat" He glowered at the girl which caused the small cat to cry harder into its partner. As he listened to the other girl mumbling stuff to calm the exceed, he quickly decided it would be for the best if he DID rip out her throat_. 'This brat talks more than Bunny girl did…'_

* * *

"Sylvette!~" Alza yelled at the top of her voice, or her indoor voice- Gajeel wasn't _sure_ she could be quiet. She lead Gajeel into a cave, buried in the canopy of trees.

"anddd your about to meet Alza, the loud one" Gajeel's sensitive ears picked up a feminine voice whine….and a laugh. Wendy's laugh. '_She's safe?!'_

Alza grabbed Gajeel's hand and ran full speed into the cave, dragging him along. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Alza shouted at the other girl. A fire was ablaze in the centre of the cave, illuminating the stone walls. Gajeel inspected his environment. The two weird girls started fighting, but he didn't give a shit about that.

"Yo! Gajeel~" Natsu grinned and waved in a way that made him cringe. It was to similar to the noisy girl. Wendy was pinned underneath the salamander, squirming and shaking as he tickled her.

"Gajeell nii saveee meeee" She cried out. She sounded like a small animal in its death throes; if he was emotionally swayed he would have gone to rescue her in a heartbeat. He ignored her. '_They look like they're having fun'_ he reasoned.

"Oi, Lily. I thought I said get them to safety!" he yelled at his companion. "Ya' call this safety?" His crimson eyes narrowed at the cat.

"I took them here and found out it was already occupied. Sylvette was nice enough to help clean the drug from their systems" Lily reported to his master. His explanation was sound. He did as instructed and actually saved them a hassle later on. However, he also knew the Kurogane wouldn't be satisfied with that, not until he judged the girls 'safe'.

He looked at the girl holding Alza in a headlock. 'she seems pretty strong' he studied her. Unlike the other girl, this one was tall and albino, with a figure similar to bunny girl. Her hair was a platinum white colour, like Mirajane's, however her hair was barely past her shoulders and held back in two loose pigtails. Almost translucent violet eyes were hinted upon in the slowly dying fire.

"Hey, Natsu-kun, Light us up please?" She gave a sweet smile in the direction of the walking match box.

"Sure thing, Sieve!" He grinned and ignored her protests of '_its Sylvette' _and set Wendy free, inhaling in deep. He let out a roar, renewing the flame which illuminated the cave.

"Okay, Play time over now guys, we're off ya' hear me?" Gajeel started.

"But lighting rod, these girls are dragon slayers!" Natsu moaned. "They're just like us" He grinned at the iron dragon slayer with his typical dopiness. Gajeel wasn't stupid. '_Just like us'_ was what they used for describing abandoned kids. More accurately, '_abandoned-by-foster-dragon'_ kids.

"Even if you leave, where exactly will you go to? Tell Nori" A pink exceed mumbled.

"Whats it to do with you?" He growled at the small creature expecting it to cower in fear. The cat huffed and pulled a face that reminded him of when Carla was rejecting happy.

"Hm… Come to think of it Nori is right. Where will you go?" Sylvette stared at her guests with curiousity. "Carla told me about your predicament, surely you must have some place in mind…? Any ideas?"

"mmm Aye!" Happy shouted out with his usual excitement. They all turned to him expectantly. "where there are lots of yummy fish!" Happy exclaimed. Everyone sighed.

""Hey, Just a thought but why not stay with us?..." Alza grinned at them. "We're all slayers. _Possibly_ the last ones out there, shouldn't we stay together?" The three ex Fairy Tail mages looked at eachother, conversing without words.

"…Sorry, You seem nice and all but we have a quest-"

"So let us help you" Sylvette glared at Carla. She wasn't going to back down.

"…If we did stay with you… how would we earn money? Liv-" Carla was interrupted again.

"We've lived off of the forest for the past 14 years. By the looks of you, you've been doing it for a good few months. We were raised by dragons, unlike most people we can survive without all of those books and things" Sylvette was making a good point.

Natsu smiled "Come with us? Ya up for it?"

"Are you serious?!" Alza yelled so loud they had to cover their ears.

Wendy nodded, despite Carla's protests. Natsu and Wendy turned and grinned at Gajeel. He sighed. There was no way that the addition of two flimsy girls and their pet's make him loose his place in their nest. He was there all along, he wasn't going anywhere. If anything happened, he'd be the one to stay.

"Welcome to the nest" Gajeel sighed. The earth slayer jumped and yelled in joy, before tackling Wendy to the ground in a hug.

"From this day forth, call me big sister~!" she laughed in excitement. Wendy's fury was radiating off of her. She pouted her best pout before mumbling something about older sisters shouldn't be violent.

"So…what was your quest…thingy?" Sylvette piped up after all the ruckus had finished. There was a lot to talk about.


	3. Draconia Claw

They sat around in a comfortable level of darkness. Wendy had long since fell asleep and her head lulled back against Natsu's shoulder as she softly snorted and whimpered, squeezing Carla even tighter. Her dreams tended to be bad these days. Natsu sighed and stroked her hair softly like Erza did with him and Gray when they were kids.

"Soo from the top again. You guys were from Fairy Tail, right?" Sylvette repeated. Natsu Gajeel and the three exceeds nodded. "and this and happened and bam dragon, but you failed to kill it?" She continued summarising their tale.

"AND THEY KICKED YOU OUT FOR THAT REASON?!" everyone cringed as Wendy stirred a little.

"Shh, Alza! You'll wake Wendy-chan!" Nori, the pink exceed that was partners with Sylvette, huffed. "Honestly child, someone should have taught you manners!" Alza huffed at the small ball of fur, but continued on in a smaller voice.

"That's so cruel…"

"At last! Indoor voice!" Lily remarked. Alza sulked in a manor all too similar to Natsu as she heard Gajeel's signature _Geehee_…

"Please, _back_ on topic!" Sylvette spoke up. Her voice was really soothing; It reminded Natsu of the _swishy swishy_ noise of the sea…

"What slayer are you?" Natsu asked, butting into the flow of conversation again. He had a sneaking suspicion…

"Oh, I never told you did i? I'm the water dragon slayer" Sylvette smiled sweetly at him, before opening her mouth to continue. "Now, will you hurry up and tell me the rest _before_ I get cross?" She signalled for him to carry on with the explanation. He nodded.

"We all got pretty fired up, and now we're after Acnologia. When we kick his ass, we can return back to the guild, and if we have to die doing it, we'll take him down with us!" Natsu grinned and punched the air. _'Just like Alza' _Sylvette mused.

"We want to find our parents, Alza's Mama '_Gaia'_ and my Mama '_Vesi__kas'_so that's our quest. Althou-" Sylvette sighed wistfully.

"same here!" Natsu interrupted enthusiastically. "Ours all disappeared on the 7th of july, 777" Nori glared and scolded the Pyromaniac.

"Now look here, at least wait for people to finish!" Nori sighed.

Carla waited until the other exceed finished before she lectured him "You'll be a bad influence to Wendy!" The two cats looked at each other, a mutual agreement. _'That there is an exceed of class' _

Sylvette sighed "For the love of- Please, All of you stop fighting. So, all our parents disappeared on the 7th of July, year 777 right? That's something important. None of us know why, either" She summarized again. Happy could see how she was starting to mother them all; they were barely there for an hour. "Then there is Acnoloiga, We- I mean you want revenge" The slip of her tongue wasn't unnoticed by Gajeel.

"Ya' got it Sid, that's our quest right buddy?" Sylvette was going to correct the fire mage, but chose against it. '_He'll learn in time…'_

"Aye!" happy remarked in response to Natsu. "And get lots of juicy fishy on the way" He added his own personal goal in there for good measure.

"Nori! he likes fish to!" Popi whispered, ears pricking from next to Alza. She seemed the exact definition of a scaredy cat (or exceed, whichever you prefer) but was taking a liking to happy, even if she was to scared of him to leave Alza's side.

"So, we come with you, we all team up slay Acnoloiga and find our parents along the way, right?" Sylvette looked at Gajeel and then Natsu, then back to Gajeel. He seemed to be the one to ask about the important stuff.

"Pretty much" Gajeel sighed. He wasn't sure why he was letting them come with, but it seemed important enough to the others and they'd already been through a lot of disappointment lately. He didn't want to be the cause of more.

"still wanna come with?" Natsu grinned at Alza.

"Yes~!" she sang out wearing a goofy grin that mirrored Natsu's.

"We have ourselves another Natsu" Happy deadpanned.

* * *

When Wendy woke up, it was morning. She stared for a few moments at the solid, greyish brown walls of the cave she lay in, on Natsu's bedroll. She didn't really remember going to a cave though… she reviewed the surroundings as last night started to come back to her…something…important…

The sky maiden sighed as she tried to remember. She hadn't slept so long in ages, _(over seven years as she reminded herself, unless the seven year time stasis was actually a long sleep…)_ so was still pretty groggy. She rubbed her eyes, they smelt of Carla's soft fur, but Carla was nowhere to be seen. 'Wait what…' She looked around to try see Carla, It wasn't uncommon for her to try escape Wendy's iron grasp when she slept. 'Come to think of it, why didn't Gajeel nii or Natsu nii wake me up today...?' She panicked and started looking around faster. The cave was empty '_WHERE ARE THEY, WHERE IS CARLA?' _She was internally screaming.

"N-no! not you two…" she was all alone. "Don't leave me as well…." She held her knees to her chest as her body shook with sobs. "why…does everyone leave me?" She had such a nice dream as well. It started off as a nightmare, but she was saved by her older brother's strong hands.

"yahoo~!" Alza cried out as she pounced on Wendy. Wendy gave a quick glance at the older girl before unfolding herself "Wendy-chann what's wrong?" she scooted upper next to the younger girl. "homesick?"

"N- Where are Carla, Natsu and Gajeel….where are they?" She looked up at her with puffy eyes.

"right here, Wendy" Natsu walked in through the vine covered entrance. "We went to get food with sylvet-" Wendy threw herself at him. "sorry…Were you scared?" he patted the top of her head gently as she wiped her eyes on his waistcoat. It smelt of him, and a lot of mud_. 'Should have packed more clothes_' she thought to her. She was the only person who packed three outfits.

"I hate you both" She sulked. "You too, Carla! How could you leave me? you knew-" Carla padded along next to Wendy and sighed.

"Gunna have to toughen up kid. Sides, did you really think we'd leave ya?" Gajeel grunted holding a dead rabbit. "We aint like the rest ya know" He dropped the corpse at Wendy's feet. She nodded grimly.

"sorry…"

Sylvette cooked food for them on a fire Natsu prepared. She wasn't going to deny, having him around was a huge help as she was pathetic at starting fires and Alza was afraid of them. Sylvette tried to cook stew, which tasted really watery- god knows how since it looked so thick. It was basically water with rabbit chucks in. Still, nobody else could cook, and Alza seemed to _only_ eat twigs so they couldn't say it was the worse option.

It felt odd at first, but soon progressed to a comfortable domestic atmosphere. The days went on like this for some time; they'd wake, eat and then talk about dragons. Anyone could see it was building up to something, they were obsessed. At Fairy Tail it was hard for the three slayers to talk like this. Not because they didn't feel comfortable, just they didn't feel right obsessing when they're own friends had other interests. Now though, they were all with people who _KNEW_ dragons existed.

They tried to spot similarities in their upbringings, see if there were any clues about the disappearance they might have left them.

"Hey guys…" Sylvette said on a relatively breezy day. They bathed in sunshine after a training session, covered in sweat. They'd only been in each other's company about a month, but it seemed…_right_ "Let's make a guild, okay?" she was breathing deeply as she tried to calm down again, adrenaline still high from her scrap with Gajeel who was trying to toughen her up in hand to hand combat.

"…why?"

"Because being in a guild is fun, right?" Sylvette patted Wendy on the head before giving her some water from her wooden bowl.

"mm, yea, but why start a guild?"

"well, you said a guild is like a family…"

"Sylvette…" Nori warned her.

"I want to be family okay?!" she blurted out, eyes tightly shut.

"…We already are right?" Wendy smiled at her and passed along the water to Popi, Alza's exceed. The second she wasn't holding anything she could spill, she hugged Sylvette tightly. _'Maybe it wasn't so bad, letting them in' _Gajeel mused to himself. It was nice for Wendy to have older sister figures, he would never say it out loud, but he was worried about her growing up without people like Ezra, Lucy, Mira or even Cana to look after her as well. Now, there were two.

Natsu looked up from talking to happy, he vaguely followed the conversation.

"A guild huh? Lets do it! The mighty dragon slaying guild that brought down the wild Acnologia" He threw a punch at Alza for a joke, but the second he pulled it back she pulled him into a headlock.

"Yea, Or the mighty guild that domesticated the wild Salamander" Gajeel muttered.

Sylvette smiled at them. "so its decided, we, five slayers…"

"and we five exceed" Happy interrupted, despite knowing how annoyed she gets when people do that.

"Yes, yes happy! I was going to- sorry and we five exceed shall form the guild-"

"Draconia Fangs!" Alza suggested

"We don't have fangs" Carla snorted.

"yeah, your right, At least make it something we have as well!" Nori agreed with Carla. They seemed to do that quite a lot lately.

"Draconic assassination squa-"

"Don't even finish that Gajeel Nii…." Wendy warned him. "We won't have a guild to do with murder" Sylvette's anger was evident on her face by now. Happy had to cover his mouth with a paw. _'Someone will get itttt'_

"If ya' get your way you'd have it guild of cuddles!" he retorted. "aint we basically a dragon assassination squad?!"

"No, were just a group of dragon slayers. Your name is stupid" Natsu agreed with Wendy on this one, that's going to far to say that you're a hit squad, even if that's what they were… " we could get called a dark guild, just for sounding weird!"

"Aint we basically a dark guild? We aint doing any shit to do with bandits or stuff that we normally get told to do" Natsu sighed. Gajeel made a _very_ good point…

"But we don't do anything bad either; we're basically a bunch of dragon freaks…" Alza chipped in. "following that, 'dragon lovers anonymous' might work..."

"GUYS! SERIOUSLY! LET ME FINISH" Sylvette yelled, her face red with anger. "sorry. Anyway, we five slayers" she glared at happy before he could say anything wise "AND we five exceed" they each nodded, satisfied with her speech so far. "shall form the guild, Draconia Claw. Any complaints?"

Everyone stared for a few moments. Well, everyone had claws… it included the first attacks they worked on together- their claw attacks.

"Draconia Claws eh?" Natsu grinned "Sounds good! Sylvette!"

"Cheh, sounds…okay" Gajeel muttered. Lily glared at him until he gave in. "Fine, fine! It's nice"

"Draconia Claw huh?" Wendy's gentle soft voice rang out. "It's pretty fun already, right Onee chan?" Sylvette looked like she was going to cry.

"I love you guys" she wailed.

"And you gys called me loud" Alza sighed, covering her ears.

Garjeel snorted. "I used to think you sounded like a fairy, turns out I was wrong- Ow!" Natsu laughed manically as Gajeel was overpowered by the scrawny earth mage.

"Draconia Claw, It's fun right, Carla?"

"…Third time lucky" Carla muttered under her breath, hopefully. Wendy ignored her. '_These guys are different, they're like me, too.' _This time, nobody will leave her.

And for the first time in a while, Wendy didn't have a bad dream that night.

* * *

_A/N Next Chapter will be back with Fairy Tail for a bit, but the story Is getting started now aye ^^_  
_Updates will be a little more slow, I guess. Just wanted to upload the already complete ones today_


	4. The rude host

For a couple of months life at Fairy Tail was awkward. Erza and Gray went on a lot of solo missions, leaving Lucy becoming an occasional member of team Shadow Gear. A lot passed in that time, Lucy learnt that her father passed away during the seven years, now she was all alone. Natsu, the person who took her to Fairy Tail to begin with was no longer there. She ended up viewing him like a brother, and he disappeared. She _needed_ to see him.

Eventually, it passed the awkward stage. Nobody ever muttered their names for fear of evoking the master's fury. They just pretended they never had the three slayers. It was a decision that Erza announced when the Master left for a meeting. They already faced his anger each time they muttered any of their names, so it became obvious the best decision was to carry on like they never existed.

It left a foul aftertaste in her mouth to announce that they had to do that, but it was for the best in the long run. Not long after that, Erza and Gray took Lucy on another mission, and they formally named themselves '_team Erza'_ since she was the one who restarted the team.

Unknowingly to them, their decision to do this made the master's job easier. _Far easier_. He sighed as they scuttled around, avoiding conversations. He saw the strain it was taking on Natsu's closest friends, but was pleased to see them keep their mouths shut. 'It won't be for that long' he silently promised them.

"we should take part in the '_Grand mage games' _Master" Romeo went up to the old man and presented the flyer to him. "Everyone's been moping around since you- since you guys returned" His voice trailed off a little at the end. _'I planned this better in my head…'_ Romeo was terrified now.

"Why?" Makarov opened a curious eye. "Why should we?"

"well we fight…and….gain honour…and money..and" everyone around the young boy saw Makarov's eyes widen.

"Prize money?"

* * *

Romeo quickly sold his idea. '_that was easy'_…

With only a month to go until the Grand mage games occurred, Team Erza went to the ocean to train. They already met with Jellal and his friends, by accident, and when Erza stalked off with Jellal for some sort of 'catch up' (or lovers meet, if you asked Lucy) Ultear gave them both their second origins to pass the time, mumbling something about they'll need it sooner or later.

"you need to work on your magic levels, Lucy" Instructed Erza. "And you, Gray, work on improving your defence in battle. I'll spar with you. We only have one more day left before we need to prepare to depart, so we should take every moment seriously"

Lucy tried meditating, her hair flowing around her madly as she radiated magic energies. _'Breath in and out, become one with the-'_

Her thought flow was interrupted by Gray flying into a tree next to her_. 'no harm watching for a while' _she shrugged and stared as Gray forged Ice make floor to make Erza slip. She was already preoccupied with Ice make…something or other, Lucy forgot what he was making, but it was still amazing that he managed to get Erza like that.

_'Gray is really improving huh…' _she continued to watch until they called truce for a drink break. _'AH, CRAP! My training!'_ she mentally berated herself. She was watching them for over an hour. _'Breath in, Breath out…'_

They were hurtling down the rickety rail line to Crocus. Team Fairy Tail was decided upon, it's members consisting of Erza, Gray, Lucy, Cana and Elfman. Within a few hours on the train Cana passed out drunk and Elfman was fast asleep, Mumbling something about being man as he dozed off.

"…Do you think their training hard, wherever they are?" Erza asked, disturbing the silence as they continued travelling. She knew they were all thinking about him. Each time they took a train she saw the ghost smiles on their faces as they remembered his motion sickness.

"I thought we were forgetting about them, Erza"

"And could you really?!" Erza snapped back at Gray "Could you really forget about your Nakama like that?"

Gray snorted. "Course not. I still worry about him, damn it. I hope the flame head hasn't gotten into _too_ much trouble"

Lucy could see where this was going, the same way it went each time. "Come on guys… this is Natsu were talking about! His probably training hard to get back into Fairy Tail it was his-"

"_His whole life,_ We know" Erza cut Lucy short. Lucy bit her lip. What the blonde meant to say was 'his family' but whole life summed it up better. Erza was right but what could they do about it?

"…Whatever. I'm sure he'll be fine" Gray fell back his chair and closed his eyes. _'Stay safe… Natsu'_

* * *

Natsu sneezed, small sparks flying out of his nose.

"Damn, someone must be thinking about me again" he mumbled.

"I'm telling Ya' its TALKING. Not that either apply to you" Gajeel snorted at him. "It's obviously just the dust here"

"Guys-" Wendy tried to reason with them.

"Tons of people! Erza, Lucy, Levy, Hell even Gray!" He would have listed them off on his fingers, if he could connect his hands together.

"Bet ya they don't know yer stupid face by now. It has to have been months by now" Non of the slayers had any idea of how long it had been. They stopped counting the days at around forty-two.

"Your on, Metalhead! Whoever is wrong gets-"

"Guys! _Please_ remember the situation we're innnn" Wendy whined. Her feet where killing her as she was held just above the ground.

"Oh, yea, Chained to a wall. Forgot that..." Natsu sulked.

A few hours before, they were training, happy as anything. Then the next minute they know, all ten of them were rounded up by rune knights and the royal guards before being dragged into a carriage where they were debriefed on how important it was for them to stay well _'for the future of earthland' _which was quite tricky as four of them were passed out due to motion sickness. Wendy cast _troia_ on them until they could just about listen, before the effects once again wore off leaving them gagging once more.

Wendy apologized repetitively as the Rune knights shouted. They couldn't blame them for getting annoyed by them, not after Natsu up chucked on their really nice new uniforms.

Still, it was a bit of cheek that they expected them to hear whichever big wig wanted to talk to them out, especially after they were dragged into the dungeon whilst they waited. However they were adamant that it was protocol since the five of them (plus lily in battle mode) knocked out nearly two battalions in less than five minutes.

"…have you tried melting the chains?" Alza asked, for the third time in the past hour.

Natsu snorted. "Ask Gajeel if his tried eating them, it's pretty hard to melt chains that were buffed up by some big shot council man!"

"And it's pretty hard eating them to, I can't exactly reach them with me damned mouth when I'm tied up like this! We went over this ya freakin weed" Gajeel growled.

"…have you tried-"

"Alza, for the last time watering the chains won't do a thing. They just become wet and shiny, so unless you think us cleaning this dungeon will let us out, give it a rest!" Alza pulled a face as Sylvette lectured her.

Wendy yawned as silence refilled the room. "Where do you think they took Carla and the others?"

"Maybe they wanted to play with them?"

"They're not domestic cats ya know, shit for flames"

"Guys, I am warning you. If you don't shut the fu- if you don't shut up I will soak you _both_ and how would you like that hmm Natsu?" Sylvette threatened. She was so angry she nearly cursed, her mother would be ashamed. When she heard the familiar _Geehee_ of Gajeel's laughter she scowled "I don't see what you find so funny, let's see how well you rust…" The second the threat left her mouth they both shut up.

In the newly acquired silence, the sound of keys and heavy footfall could be heard from above. After a few minutes the gates swung open and guards approached the cell.

"Draconia Claw?" A man clad from head to toe in reagal robes asked.

"Who's askin'?"

"I am Aristotle Foran. I am a Vice captain in the royal guard. I am here to take you to Princess Hisui-Sama. She has a request of you" everyone in the room exchanged looks.

"…Who?"

* * *

Cheers rang out and crowds were roaring out as the contesters for the Grand mage games were finally announced.

"In eighth place, the team not one person expected to get this far, _Fairy Tail_!" Silence occurred whilst they walked into the arena. _'cheh, We'll turn this around'_ Grey scowled to himself. Mummers went across the audience_ 'come to think of it, weren't eight teams supposed to get past this round?' _

"In seventh, their wild, it's Quatro Cerberus!" once again the cheers started, as the pumpkin announced one more guild each time.

After Quatro Cerberus, there was _Mermaid Heel, _then _blue Pegasus_. Nobody was that surprised to hear Team _Lamia scale_ made fourth but a lot of the crowd seemed shocked to see Raven tail at third. The biggest shock to them was when mighty _sabertooth _made second. 'Who the hell is first?' seemed the general question of the crowd.

"We will crush them all" Gray mumbled to himself, as he watched the members of Sabertooth walk on.

"And now, a special team has not only been allowed to compete despite not being an official registered guild yet, but they also stole top spot! A team of mages with magic from fairy stories, Team _Draconia Claw_!" The pumpkin commentator cried out the final team.


	5. Hidden

"Special allowances? They must be something special…" Lucy whispered to Erza who merely nodded. She had this awful feeling…Draconia…like Draconian…

The final door opened and the smoke rolled out revealing five silhouettes. When the smoke cleared up, five figures clad in black stood before the crowds. Gray didn't give the two unknown people a second glance, he just stared straight at the mass of pink hair he saw.

Gray's eyes widened._ 'N-NATSU?!' _He then spotted Wendy and Gajeel. Somehow, they all seemed different.

Gajeel ignored Fairy Tail. '_No need to think about them' he _reminded himself, he could see Sylvette's worried glances. Instead of looking to the past, he stared forwards. Or he would have done, but instead he let out a loud yawn. They didn't get much sleep in their dungeon cell. It was hard to act cool when you could barely stand for fatigue.

Natsu's own Onyx eyes stared straight at Fairy Tail. He watched them curiously for a few moments, as if thinking about something, then turned away and stared at Sabertooth for some odd reason. Wendy's head was held low in sadness. It was like a puppy.

If they didn't feel guilty before, they did now. There across from them were three of their old members, each refusing to give them more than a glance._ 'I guess they're pretty upset about it huh?'_ Erza sighed. She loved them all, even Gajeel. She wished she could apologize.

Makarov stared down at them. They looked like official, dressed in identical black outfits. They were practically wearing uniform. The three girls were wearing black tunics and leggings, black ankle boots protecting their feet. Natsu and Gajeel sported black tunics and pants, Natsu's tied around three quarters of the way down his legs like they always were. His white scarf was one thing that serparted him from the rest of them, not that they seemed to care. He still wore his sandals, as well, It felt like the same old Natsu, just with a few changes. None of them had sleeves, instead having vambraces around their forearms with their guilds emblem of a Dragon biting its tail in a circle shape, wings out stretched and a rune in the middle.

"That's says Destiny, in the Draconian writing system" the spirit of Mavis turned to Makarov "Though you already knew that, didn't you?"

"…it's not important" the guild master grumbled.

"Yet" Her eyes sparkled with wisdom. She could see threw his plans.

* * *

"I swear it'll be easy, _pleaseee_ let me do it!"

"I dunno…"

"I'd be good for this, I'm short!"

"And noisy, how the hell do ya' think yer won't get found?"

Once again, the five of the slayers were squabbling, in a good natured manner. As soon as the first round was announced, they started to cast votes, four against one in favour of Sylvette.

Sylvette nominated herself officially, her name appearing before the screen.

"From Team Draconia Claw, Sylvette Featherwick" The Lacrima view went across to her. Having never seen such objects, she was desperate to break it apart and learn its secrets. Instead she put up with it.

The pumpkin commentator announced the rules for hidden, along with the other commentators. She eyed her competition carefully memorising their names and faces. _Rufus Lore, Nullpudding, Lyon Vastia, Eve Tearm, Beth Vanderwood, Jäger_ anddd the important one. Gray Fullbuster. "That's Gray, huh?" A grin spread across her face before she composed herself. Wendy wasn't blind to the venomous look that passed her eyes. _'Don't do anything stupid, Sylvette nee…'_ She silently willed her friend to stay on focus to the task ahead.

As the town appeared around them, Sylvette immediately stopped moving. She glanced around at the clones. '_Oh no…'_ this would be harder than she expected it to be. Gray was struck by Nullpudding, after a mistake from Fairy Tail's mage. She used that chance to attack Nullpudding, Hitting him directly in the back as he got his hit on Gray_. 'You get him this time…'_ she wasn't too pleased, but still the points helped. She sighed, keeping in mind their deal. This wasn't as fun as she imagined.

Sylvette waited a while. "ahh…which one was Grayyyy again…" she mumbled out. He unconsciously reacted to his name, all according to plan.

"Wing slash of the water dragon!" Her voice shook as she yelled out. _'Another slayer?!'_ Gray's eyes widened as he realised who his attacker was. _'Draconia Claw'_ he never imagined that someone from that team would attack him, even if it was someone he didn't know.

She was immediately knocked out by Beth Vanderwood. Wendy sighed from her position in the audience. "I knew it…she's after Gray-san" she shook her head, watching as Sylvette was knocked out from Beth's attack.

When Sylvette came back into play, it felt a lot colder. She held her breath as and tried her best not to shiver. He struck out and attacked Nullpudding, Beth and Jäger. She froze again, since Eve made his move he was dealing with the aftermath of it.

She breathed out, it made a little noise but given how much others were panting, it didn't matter so much. Now all she had to do was sniff another and- She planted a hit on Beth. "Sorry!" She cried as she hit the girl with a wing attack. She started to inhale again when she noticed someone missing.

Too late, Rufus released his memory make magic on them, a night of falling stars hitting everywhere. She jolted as the lightning based magic took a direct hit on her. 'Water and lighting don't mix…' she remembered her mother's advice to late. Her ears were ringing, blood pouring from her nose. "no…way" she whimpered out, as the sky turned black. The last thing she heard was the sound of time being called, game over.

* * *

"Damnit! I failed" Gray slammed his fist against the wall. "Raven tail, sabertooth. Their going down!"

"…what about Draconia Claw"

"…Erza…."

"I'm serious, Gray. She tried for you twice."

"And look at her now!"

"Look at whom now?" Gray's skin crawled as he turned to see the girl, or monster he wasn't quite sure, in question. "Gray Fullbuster right?" she slowly eyed up "And you would be Erza and Lucy. Just like I imagined!…Evergre- No. Cana and your Elfman" She looked from one to the next. "Or so I guess" She laughed, holding a delicate hand over her mouth.

"How are you healed so quickly?"

"My sister is a great medic- ah but you already know that, right?" the sickly sweet tone in her voice was almost teasing as she gave her a sugary smile to top it off. "Wendy-chan is so talented!" She continued.

"…How are they?"

"They're better now. I mean, they still have trust issues and all that, but still their better" she watched their expressions darken and scowled. "Oh please, don't tell me you didn't think about what it would do to them? They already had abandonment issues, you just rubbed salt in their still sore wounds"

"Why are you here?" Erza jumped in. "You should be with your own guild if your better"

"Oh, I'm just here to give a little message to Fairy Tail" a look passed between the Fairy Tail mages. The albino's kind expression turned to one that made them feel she would rip out their throats. Her eyes darkened and they felt as if they really were having a stare of with a dragon. Lucy's whole body shook, she reached out for Gray who was fixated to the ground in fear. "If any of you _EVER_ hurt my family again, I won't let you go. I will follow your scent until the end of your days and-"

"Onee chan!" Wendy's voice echoed down the corridor they were in. Stopping the girls verbal rampage. Her face turned back to a kind one again. The young slayers footfall was echoing as she got closer and closer to them. "I swear you have a worse sense of direction than Nori does!" she sighed heavily before panicking "ahh don't tell her I said that tho- …guys…" she stopped and her eyes widened. She was too preoccupied with finding her guild mate to notice her old one's scents.

Sylvette sighed. "Go on, go to them. I won't tell Carla a thing" She gave a warm smile. Wendy gingerly wrapped her arms around the young woman's waist.

"You're the best, Vetty" Fairy Tail stared. They certainly saw the demonic dragon slayer in a different way to Wendy. She saw cuddly mother figure, they saw murderous angry dragon mother- then it clicked._ 'This girl is acting like a mother to her…' _It suddenly became a lot harder to hold a grudge against the albino girl.

Wendy unwrapped herself from Sylvette, bowing low at Fairy Tail. She froze up, forgetting everything she wanted to say to them.

"ahh, I'm sorry…?" she bowed even lower, her hands clutching her dark tunic. "Sorry!" she yelled out a little louder.

"Wendy-Chan…" Lucy started.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble" she bowed. When Wendy raised her head, they saw a tear trickling down her check as the light hit it in a gentle way. "I hope your okay…"

Erza smiled. That sounded a lot like the Wendy they knew and loved.

"One day….One day we will become strong enough to join you again…if you don't-"

"Some day you'll get big enough to drink with me, it's not long now, looking at how you've grown" She winked and the sky maiden unconsciously crossed her arms to hide her still developing chest.

"One day Wendy, We will be able to properly apologize to you. Let you know how sorry we all are" Lucy cried and pulled her into a hug. Erza went to stroke her hair when they felt the girl freeze up. _'Trust issues'_ Sylvette's warning echoed in their minds.

Wendy Unravelled herself. "If I smell like you guys, Natsu and Gajeel will be annoye-" she stopped dead when she saw the hurt on their faces. "no no no no no! ahh I mean, They miss you so much! They keep talking about how we'll get stronger and complete our que- I mean, we'll get stronger so we can go back to the guild, with Vetty and Alza and-" She stopped again and breathed deeply. "We all miss you"

"It's true. They want to see you again, even that aloof cat of Wendy's misses your company"

"You say Carla is aloof?! Onee chan your being unfair. Nori is just as bad- if not worse!" She looked back at her old friends. "But its true. Carla misses you, so please…Please let us go back to you some day. We'll work hard, We'll slay Acnologia… We'll" She started to cry again, her fists grabbing at the hem of her tunic again. "We'll die trying, if that's what it takes for you to forgive us"

"What Master did wasn't being a Man" Elfman added. "Missing you lot is man"

"Tell them were still Nakama, right?" Gray forced the words out. He wasn't normally so centimental, but this was a special occasion.

"….See you soon, guys" Wendy forced a smile, her eyes still teary.

Sylvette took Wendy's hand. "Lets go, Wendy, I wanna see who won between Natsu and Alza"

"Ah, Natsu did. He tried to set fire to her hair again"

Their voices trailed off down the corridor, until the Fairies were left stunned.

"…being afraid of that woman, is man"

"And people say Erza can be Bipolar…" Cana shuddered. She needed a lot of drink to get over that experience.

* * *

Team Draconia Claw lay on top of the roof of the fourth guest wing on the eastern side of the palace watching the stars.

Since they were staying in Crocus for the duration of the games by the princess's request, she also put them up. They were already infuriating her by their wild manners, but they didn't really care. They weren't bothered by any rewards, they were just doing what she asked for something to do _(And help with tracking down Acnologia, with the royal guards on their sides, it would be a lot easier)._

"It's pretty huh?" Alza spoke up, her eyes shining as she watched the stars in awe.

"Just like the stars back at home, Nori believes" The pink exceed snuggled closer to Sylvette.

"They're aint such a thing as home" Gajeel sighed. "Not for our types" Lily stared at him in concern before talking with Happy and Carla again.

"I think there is…I just don't think its in this world" Natsu looked at Wendy, a serious expression on his face.

"…Think it's in the world the princess told us about?"

Popi sat up….surely…they weren't going to let that happen…

"I think so, Wendy. What about you?"

* * *

_A/N What do you think's happening? ^^ R&R_

_Also, this is a story which will be only using two OC's, however the other one I started writing needs some. /sobs._

_If you would be Interested, PM me please! 3 _


	6. Rage

An exceed ran through the night, the pitter patter of paws falling on the cobblestones of Crocus _'I must warn them…Fairy Tail...' _

* * *

By the time morning arrived and the day started, the competitors walked to the arena and prepared for the day's events. Chariot was one Natsu found himself desperate to participate in, he wanted a go after he saw how fun '_Hidden'_ was. Well. How much fun he _thought_ hidden was.

"Natsu Nii, please you can have your go next time"

"nuu uhh. I want a go, you hear me?"

"So do I!"

"I'm older"

"Ladies first"

"You aint a freakin' lady!"

"_What. Was. that_?" Alza's eyes shone with anger as she continued her verbal dispute with the salamander. Gajeel sighed. He didn't mind normally, but they were getting attention from the other guilds' teams and he _hated_ attention. So did Alza, just she seemed imune to spotting it right now.

"You heard me. I'm participating!" Natsu yelled out. His voice was heard and from that, he became the competitor for Chariot.

"SO NOT FAIRRRR" Alza threw a punch at Natsu who tilted back to dodge it. Cana stared wide-eyed as she watched from their team's area. _'Natsu…how did you improve so much?_'

* * *

Each competitor was announced, and once again in a similar fashion to before the rules were announced. Each member of Draconia claw cringed as they learnt the game rules.

"…I bet you that we lose this!" Alza turned to Wendy face red from trying not to laugh.

"Alza!" Wendy laughed out. "Don't bet on us loosing!" Wendy pouted at the other girl. They were identical in build, but not in personalities. Well, not that Wendy saw but their friendship was starting to rub off on Wendy's personality.

"I said I should do this one!" Alza grinned and lazily draped an arm around the sky maiden's shoulder. "I win, Dragneel!" she silently hoped his ears picked it up. Sylvette sighed.

"Your motion sickness is just as bad..." The earth mage frowned.

"Gajeel-Kun, I think our children are acting up"

"What?" He struggled not to laugh. "Shut yer trap woman, I wanna laugh at the flame head! …Sides, Weed will never be my kid and you aint my woman"

"….Gajeel, Sylvette…. WE AINT YER DAMNED KIDS!...AND WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN ANYWAY, SCREW LOOSE?! YOU'D LOVE A KID LIKE ME" Alza shoved them both, ending the discussion.

They watched as Natsu took off on the contest, Sting Eucliffe being of equal interest to them. Wendy sighed mournfully, wishing to give them both a good dose of her healing spells.

"Think he'll join us, Onee chan?" Wendy's eyes were bright and hopeful. It would be hard to refuse the girl, she'd do absolutely anything to make her dream come true. Alza, also looked desperate for this ideal to come true.

"…No. I know he will" Sylvette's mouth twisted into a smile, a solitary dark thought in her head _'and if they don't want to, I'll make them'_

* * *

After Natsu and Sting clashed in chariot, coming bottom two (Natsu beating Sting by a single step) it wasn't surprising that the two of them kept careful watch over the other.

"Damned flashlight" Natsu was pissed. "I could have shown him! if only I wasn't-" his face turned green as the memory of the motion brought on his illness.

"OH NO YA' DON'T, NOT HERE, YA' HERE ME?!" Alza shook his shoulders, making even more motion than he could handle.

"Stop please!" Wendy laughed, she figured out a placebo effect for this some weeks ago. "Natsu Nii, I'll cast my super special spell now alright?" she planted a chaste kiss on his forehead. "That's to hold off the effects of after-motion-sickness!" she smiled at him, as he slowly rose up.

"Thanks, Wendy! I feel much better!" He gave his token grin_. 'I'm so glad his an idiot' _she silently thanked every deity in existence that her beloved older brother wasn't the brightest out there.

"ANYWAY! I'd totally beat that stupid Ping!" They all sighed as he got the name wrong, again. "Do you know what he said?! _'The time of the first generation is_ _over'_ cheh, we'll show him!" they continued conversation as they turned a corner. "I swear, they're a real piece of shit. _Both_ of them are!"

"both?" Gajeel raised an eyebrow, pushing some random civilian out the way as they tried to make their way to the food stalls.

"Oh yea, Him and…er…Doge? Ruby? …him and thingy-ma-jig, they…."

"they what, Ya' damned pyromaniac. Tell us or I'll beat the crap out of ya-" Gajeel was silenced a glance.

"They're dragon's are gone"

"So are ours, that doesn't make them bad…" Wendy was really confused, Natsu never judged people...

"No, their dragon's _won't_ come back, they killed them, on the 7th of July, 777…" Natsu's voice got drowned out by the crowds.

"huh? I didn't hear that" Sylvette tried to call out to him over the ever increasing noise of the area.

"THEY KILLED THEIR PARENTS!" silence filled the area they were in and all eyes went to the group of slayers. Wendy noticed Hibiki, Lyon, Lucy and other mages who were participating stare at them.

"Oh, where you talkin' about me, Natsu-San" Sting Eucliffe's voice drawled out as he pushed passed people to talk to the older male.

"You bastard, you killed your own dragon?" Alza leaped next to Natsu, dragging Wendy with her.

"yes" he replied icily.

"…you…what?!" Wendy's usually calm demur was shaken."H-how could you?!" she untangled her arm from Alza, cheeks flushed that she was brought to attention. "You killed your dragon?"

"Yes, my hands are covered in the blood of my dragon!" His voice was full of taunting. "What did you do? Natsu-San. Gajeel-San. You both _FAILED_ to kill a dragon, whereas I- I have surpassed you a thousand times over!" Gajeel had to hold himself back from attacking him. Sting's smug gaze was really pissing him off. "The first generation is over; the rein of the third has begun"

By now a mass of people had appeared, gawking at the display in front of them. Members of the magic council had to prepare to break them up on the off chance a fight occurred outside the arena. Levy and the rest of team shadow gear, Mirajane and the thunder tribe. Everyone was curious as to what was going on, what was riling up their old Nakama this much.

"You should bow to us, now-"

"We will never bow to anyone" Sylvette's voice was so calm it was terrifying in its own way. Her violet eyes were showing a myriad of emotions, mostly anger and hatred. Once again she looked wild and untameable. "How dare you insult my family? Do you think you're brave? You're nothing but a weak hybrid. You couldn't achieve the true power without that stupid Lacrima! You've been corrupted! Tainted by these human-"

"Who says I'm tainted? I _WANTED_ this lacrima"

"It's destroying your true powers!"

"It's improving them!"

"Bull-" The moment her friends heard her about to swear, they knew something was up. She was never angry over anything.

"Sylvette! Calm down!" Alza grabbed hold of her old friend and shook her "He aint worth it! his all talk no action!"

"His being controlled!"

"What are you talking about, Wench? The lacrima inside of me-"

"IT'S CURRUPTING YOU!" Like some sort of mad woman she pointed at him, shaking. Her voice sounded strained with distress. She lashed out to scratch at sabertooth's slayer, Natsu catching her and pulling back before she could do anything stupid.

"Calm it" he whispered in her ear from behind. His strong arms wrapped around her waist as he stopped her rampage. Mira's eyes widened. _'Natsu has a girl?!' _

"He is a fool and a weakling! He should die!" she growled. Her fangs bearing as she looked at the fire mage. "Get in my way and I'll knock you down-"

"SYLVETTE!" Natsu roared this time. "We can sort this out _later_"

The water slayer bit her lip and nodded before turning for one last time at her opponent. "The world is changing, Sting Eucliffe. You're either with us or against us, and I'm _sure_ you don't want to be against us" by now Rogue appeared at Sting's side. Watching silently from his place as team Draconia Claw stalked away leaving the crowds shocked.

* * *

By the time afternoon came around they all made their way back to the arena, eyes firmly on them from all angles after their dispute with the other team earlier. They felt uncomfortable as they tried to watch the match happening below them. They already watched a fight between Toby Horhorta and Kurohebi and now they were watching a match between Elfman and Bacchus Groh. Natsu's money was on Elfman losing, unless he improved a ton.

"I told you to stop" Alza spat out. "I don't want to see you guys right now. I want to go _home_, I want popi back-"

"Alza, we all want them back" Sylvette sighed, stroking the earth mage's fine dreadlocks."Calm down, please?" soft deep breathing was coming from the tanned girl, her eyelids twitching as she drifted off to sleep. Sylvette sighed "You're a dope, Al" She continued to knot her fingers in her hair.

"…Tonight were training and I'll kick your ass!" as she said that, her name was chosen for the next match with Jenny Realight.

"…yea, you may want a nap after this though…" She laughed as her jaw hit the floor in shock.

"_noo wayyyy_" She moaned, standing up and preparing to go down to the arena. "After this, I'm _defiantly_ kicking yer ass! You jinxed me girl" she stretched and gave a fist bump to Natsu. "Okay, Let's do this~!" she laughed as she ran down the steps to the arena.

The second she hit the stairs, she tumbled down.

"Are we _sure_ she's gunna be okay?" Gajeel cringed.

* * *

Alza walked into the arena, already slightly bruised from her tumble. "So not cool" she moaned, stretching her arms. She eyed her opponent cautiously. 'I should be careful; I've heard she's strong…'

"Nice to meet you, little girl" the woman sneered at her. _'First mistake' _Alza grinned mischievously, reminding Gajeel of his first impressions of her.

"Ditto, Old hag~!" She sang out in her high, almost squeaky voice. She watched Jenny's smile disappear.

"I saw you earlier, you should have manners you animal" She scowled at the short girl, watching as her hands shook in rage. '_animal_…' echoed in her head. '_freak'_ '_murderer'_ She snapped in rage. Alza ran across and planted a strike on Jenny's midriff, punching her hard in the stomach with a fist of the earth dragon. _"Earth Dragon's Blossoming Fist!" _She danced around Jenny planting numerous blows on her body with different attacks.

Jenny yelped as she was struck several times. "ah! You brat!" she hissed out. "I can't be bruised up; I have a photo shoot next week!"

"huhh…I'm sorry, I'll try turn all of you black and blue!" she laughed out sadistically. "Roar of the earth dragon!"

"brat" She mumbled. Let's get this over with, okay? "_Makina Sōru" as_ Jenny went into her takeover form, she sped up, planting attacks in retaliation to the yelped out as her dreadlocks were pulled and she was flung off into a wall.

"_Shit_!"

"That's what you get for being disrespectful to those older than you!" she used her take over magic to summon a blade and swung wildly, cutting the girls face.

"Wanna see what disrespect looks like?" Grassy green eyes shone with defiance, her fangs bared as she gave a big grin, wiping blood from her mouth. She spat out a mouthful of blood to the ground. "Claws of the earth dragon!" She put her full force into the attack. She shot her hands in the air, Tendrils sprouting from the ground and grabbing at Jenny's legs and arm restraining her.

"ah!" Jenny turned her armoured arm into a saw, cutting through the thick roots that held her back.

"wanna see how many times you can do that?" a sadistic smile grew on Alza once more "In a story Mama told me once, A little bird sang as thorns cut its skin. You look like a pretty bird, I bet you sing pretty to!" She had a deranged look on her face; Lucy shuddered as she remembered Flare having a similar expression. "Sing for me please?" She grew thorns on her tendrils, spiking and piercing at her victim. They barely made it through Jenny's metallic armour, but exposed areas were left scratched bloody and raw from the Sharp organic blades.

"_Shit_…" she kept cutting away at the tendrils, squirming as a thick branch went through her armoured boots. Alza drew back her thorns finally bored of her pain. "You're some sadist!" Jenny's anger forced her hand. She threw a punch with her hard metallic armoured fist, landing a blow on the dragon slayers back.

"Owie owie owie!" Jenny laughed as the girl fell to the ground, determined for payback for her earlier treatment."I'm angry now. Sky-Earth dragon slayer mode!" she spoke out in the same high, ethereal voice that she used for attacks, only now it seemed to carry and boom across the arena. "My friend once told me something…."She used her dual element to bring Jenny crashing down and shooting up, crushing her between the extreme air pressure and the earth. "…no matter how hard I try the earth will never meet the skies" She chanted it out, her creepy childish tone sounding like she was saying a nursery rhyme. A very threatening nursery rhyme.

She tried not to laugh as jenny wriggled and screamed out. '_I'm not an animal'_ she reminded herself.

"Psychopath" Jenny's ragged voice accused out. By now, people were making to stop her attacks, concerned that blue Pegasus could die any given moment. "You're an animal" unwittingly she stepped right on the landmine again, Alza's hand moved in for the final attack.

"Flowering pain, Poison Spores, Pained howl" As she made to do her Roar of the Earth-Sky dragon. Time got called immediately.

"STOP!" cried the commentators. Alza looked around… remembering for the first time that they were being watched in this tournament, she freaked out that eyes were on her, conveying the same message. _'Animal, freak, Psychopath…'_ She started turning around, like a scared animal unsure of where to go. Her breathing went ragged as she searched for someone to hold onto.

_"Popi, Popi, Popi"_ She chanted as she searched for her friend. People watched the slayers curious behaviour with a lot of interest. She went from monster to a scared child in the drop of a hat.

"The winner is Draconia Claw Kabo!" By now the team's companions had came down to congratulate (or heal) their team mates. Blue Pegasus surrounded Jenny, whereas only Wendy ran over to Alza.

"Breath, you're safe" she stroked her hair, watching as she collapsed into uncontrollable sobs. "Hush now"

"Dee…" she sniffed out. "I lost it again…"

"You're safe, Onee chan" she stroked the top of her hair before walking over to see jenny. "Can I heal you, Jenny-San-"

"get away from me, you animal. Your all animals!" she interrupted, half in embarrassment half in fear.

"but I can-"

"Go away! Dragon slayers are monsters after all!" Wendy made a glance back at her friend. She was shaking in fear, eyes glazed over with tear drops. _'Al..._' Wendy sighed. She walked back to her Nakama, holding her by the hand.

"Let's go, Al. The others were called away by her highness" she whispered in the girl's ear before dragging her off, letting out a small growl at the injured woman. "Unforgivable…" she mumbled at the Takeover mage.

"_Animals_ should be put down!" Jenny yelled out. The two girls froze, before Wendy covered her friends ears.

"You're the one acting like one now, Jenny-San!" she tried to sound defiant and protective, but couldn't quite shake off her usual politeness. "The match is over! Please leave her alone! She is sorry for any harm caused but please remember it is a fight for a-"

"You're all monsters in your team…"

"Jenny-San PLEASE stop!" she continued to urge her.

"Dragon slayers are pathetic! You can't slay Dragons, only maim humans!"

"wh-what?!" Wendy flushed in embarrassment_. 'she doesn't mean…'_

"I've heard of you, the slayer that couldn't slay a dragon-"

"you said _'That couldn't'_ doesn't mean I couldn't now"

"Miss Marvell, we all know how gentle you are. You couldn't harm a fly even if you-"

"YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?!" Eyes focused on her as she uncharacteristically yelled. For a moment the polite gentle girl was positively feral. Jenny felt she was facing a real dragon, a cold, unforgiving dragon.

"BREAK IT UP! KABO!" the pumpkin cried as he blew the whistle, calling time.

"I think you should hold onto your tongue, I'd hate for you to lose it later" Wendy whispered her threat before taking her team mate by the hand away to safety. However quiet her threat was, It didn't go unheard by the Fairies. Makarov's eyes widened as Mavis repeated what the girl said.

"…I think we pushed them the wrong way. History may just repeat itself…"

"…its time Fairy Tail makes its move, Third"

* * *

_A/N that was a pain in the butt, I had to come up with all the things Jenny could do e_e Forgive the artistic licence? /sobs_

_R&R_


	7. Missing

"…n…no way!" Lucy's eyes bulged. "Your joking right?"

"I wish I was, I'm sorry. I handled it badly" Makarov stroked his chin thoughtfully. "However, it looks like what we predicted took a bad turn" He turned to the four Fairies in front of him. "I need you to bring them back to our side. If they carry down this path, it will only lead to destruction. No parent wishes to see his brats cause their own demise"

"I don't mind, but you will apologize right? You're the one who pushed them away" Gray was weary of seeing the look on their friend's faces. He hurt in ways he never expected to.

"Yes, It was a mistake I made through over thinking. If we just let fate take its course…" a look of sorrow passed the old man's face. "I hope they can forgive my misjudgement"

"I'm sure they will, but, how do you know all of this, master?" Erza scowled slightly, it didn't add up quite right.

"Lily told me last night" Everyone's eyes widened. "I thank Mavis it isn't as bad as we assumed…"

"LILY DID?" Lucy was shocked. "But…I thought he was Gajeel's partner? That's why he was exiled right?-"

"No" Makarov's eyes shone with a almost sinister glint. "I exiled they're _partners_. They just followed, as expected. They were following my orders though" He took a deep breath before explaining. "I told you that they had to meet those other slayers, correct? Well once we figured that out, I had Carla locate them. When that was completed I exiled the three of them and they went off in a 'random' direction, following Carla's instincts mostly. In other words, we forced fate to work in our favour"

"So you _forced_ a meeting between them all?" Erza's eyebrows furrowed. She rarely disagreed with the master but this was going too far.

"Essentially, yes. Just remember it was what we deemed necessary" he shook his head once more. "I'm not proud of this, but we had to consider what would have happened if we didn't…"

"This is wrong" Gray shook his head. "They're being played, after being played, and being- All this double crossing is confusing me!" he ran his hand threw his hair "I'm sorry Master, but the guild was their _LIVES_. Not just a game to them, it was their purpose"

"Just a question, what if they find out their Exceed's are working against them? Won't that force them even further away from us?"

"Hopefully that will never happen but if it does, I imagine we'd lose them all together…"

"Then we better get a move on, right?" Mira sighed. "And master? Never do this again okay?"

"I promise, Mirajane"

* * *

"I'm scared…" Alza sniffed out as she confessed, her eyes still red and puffy from all the tears she shed" She dried her eyes with her free arm as she held onto Wendy with the other. "Please don't leave my side"

"I won't, Alza-Nee" Wendy sighed, they laid on the grass of Crocus' central park, half hidden by the shadows as they watched the clouds under a tree. "Where do you think they went to?"

"…I dunno. If Hisui asked for them, it's gotta be important right?" she shook her head. "I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me you could have gone wit-"

"Shut up sis" Wendy punched her shoulder lightly in a fashion similar to Natsu when he cheers them up. "It's not your fault. Jenny-San was cruel to you, she called you an animal. You aren't, she was just mean"

"It just reminded me of…"

"I know…" Wendy wrapped a spindly arm around the other girl. "The others will understand to. I won't forgive anyone who makes you feel like that, nor will they" Alza let a small smile show. "Just be grateful that Gajeel-Nii wasn't there, he'd have killed that girl for you!"

"I dunno about that big guy, _you_ would have killed Jenny-san given half a chance…"

"…shhh, I'm innocent" she pouted, before laughing. She was most glad to see Alza's old nature coming back.

"I'd say Gajeel corrupted you" Wendy sat up quickly, banging her head on the tree_. 'That voice…'_

"OWIEE" Wendy rubbed her head before shaking it. "Lucy-San?"

"Hey, Wendy!" She started to freeze up, unsure of what to say next. "Ah…how are you?" she asked nobody in particular.

"Let's go, Wendy" Alza grabbed the sky maiden's hand, determined to pull her away.

"Wait! You don't own Wendy she can do what she likes!" Lucy huffed "I need to talk to her"

"Huh? _You_ don't own her either, you don't even like her!"

"G-guys!"

"Wendy do you want to talk to me or get walked all over by-"

"ENOUGH!" the two girls stopped fighting and looked at her. "Some other time ok Lucy-San?" She bowed politely before taking off with Alza. Lucy sighed. _'This will be harder than I expected' _as she was about to turn away, she spied Wendy's bag left propped up against the tree. '_No harm returning this right?' _as she went to go follow her, she learnt the two of them vanished into thin air.

"…Now what do I do?!" Lucy moaned in distress, desperate to give back the bag and desperate to complete Master's request.

* * *

After taking back the bag to the rendezvous point to meet with her team mates, the three of them sat in a café, waiting for some lucky inspiration to strike.

"So you met with her but didn't ask for where she was staying? How could you be so dim?"

"Not like I could even if I wanted to Gray! She had that girl from today attached to her! I swear, it was creepy how she kept fawning over her! She practically told Wendy-Chan I hate her"

"Wendy probably doesn't believe her, besides, all that the girl knows is we were the guild that exiled them for being under experienced, she probably hates us more than our old Nakama ever could" Erza reasoned with the two of them. "Now, I suggest we search her bag"

"That's her property, she'll smell us all over it" Gray ran his hands threw his hair.

"Clothes, gray"

"SHIT!" as they watched him panic around trying to put back on his garments, Lucy let out a mewl of distress.

"Listen, what if we got Virgo to do it?"

"…huh?"

"She once said that Celestial spirits smell like the night sky. Wendy herself smells of the sky, at least according to Natsu. They won't suspect a thing, especially if it was out of her reach for some time. Maybe we could trick her…?"

"...Lucy you're a genius!"

"Or an idiot, what if she detects it's a spirit that did it?" Gray wasn't happy with this one bit.

"Listen I found the bag, I'll return it to her. If I got my spirit to carry it would that be so hard to believe?"

"...If she asks I had nothing to do with this" Gray mumbled, but they agreed it was best.

"open the gate of the maiden! Virgo!"

"Time for punishment princess?" Lucy shook her head furiously at the _masochistic _spirit.

"Please, just empty this bag on the table and put it back in for us?"

"Yes, princess" They watched as she dropped out a purse with so few coins in that she wouldn't be able to buy a candy bar, an old journal with a pen stuffed into the side of it that she used to take everywhere and a small box of matches, three screws, a fork and a bundle of twigs. They could only assume she was carrying snacks for people in there. Really _disturbed_ people, nevertheless, they sort of felt like snacks. The only thing that seemed important was two rolled up papers. "Want me to read them, Princess?"

"…yes, please" Erza replied in Lucy's place.

"This is a letter from someone called 'S' want me to read it?"

"yes please" Lucy smiled at her spirit, glad that she'd get the blame over Lucy.

"Seven times seven, I see it to" Virgo tilted her head "That's all it says, Princess"

After exchanging quizzical glances, she nodded and asked Virgo to continue with the other paper.

"This is a map of the castle, notes have been made saying 'Hisui's room, operation two'" she opened it out and revealed it to the trio of fairies.

"Hisui? I'm sure I've heard that name before…" Gray panicked. "You don't think they'll do something stupid will they?"

"…This is Natsu, when has he ever not done something stupid?"

"I just hope Wendy stays out of trouble…" They all sighed in unison, as Lucy forced Virgo to put everything back.

* * *

As night fell for the second day of July, the dragon slayers were sprawled out on the floor of the guest suite they were given. Although they all had beds, it had been so long since they slept in them they seemed to just take up residence on the floor beside the huge fire (_that Natsu had a bad habit of eating_) just like they would in their forest residence.

Gajeel felt the weight of Natsu leaning against his shoulder, but he was too damn tired to tell him to buzz off and he could hear the soft snores of the salamander so didn't have the heart to wake him. He lightly ruffled his hair, listening to him mumble stuff about Igneel for the millionth night in a row. '_Poor kid'_ he sighed. At Sylvette's side Alza was sleeping, holding herself in a fetal position. Gajeel watched her with concern. He wasn't a pansy, so couldn't ask her out right, but he knew she was still troubled by earlier. She was quiet all evening, and he hated that. He wanted _blood_ for that. In his head, she should always be a happy, hyperactive carefree chatterbox that doesn't know when to shut up (or how to) because that was the Alza he came to care for. Not that he'd ever say that out loud, he would hate to encourage the noise.

He noticed Sylvette's legs start kicking, and tried to avoid looking. After a solid few minutes of it, and her skirt riding up, he figured it was time to bring it up. "I can see your panties"

"Gajeel…." She warned, not looking up from her sheets. "Don't look"

"What? I can't help it when yer flashin' em. Put your legs down woman" Her legs stopped dead and she dropped them back to the ground. She huffed and tugged her plum coloured skirt back down. She changed out of their uniforms and into her typical dark purple skirt and crop top. Alza never had the heart to tell her the dark colour made her look like the undead, they knew she was already hung up on her pale appearance so she told people to leave it if they came close to bringing it up.

"Girlie, stop crying" Gajeel opened a free arm for Wendy. She sniffed and gladly shuffled over to him, her arms wrapping tightly around his waist.

"I can't believe I lost something so important…"

"err…?" He was never the best at comforting her. "Salamander just rubbed off on you that's all?"

"Gajeel, you're doing it wrong" Sylvette scolded him. He scowled and pulled a face at the water girl, making Wendy laugh. "I saw that"

"Right, yea, cause yer eyes are all over yer head"

"Quiet!" she yawned before settling back into work.

"Whatever" he rubbed Wendy's arms gently. "You'll find it, I'm sure you will"

"The diary I was writing for Mama Is In it…"

"I know, Girlie. I saw you pack it" He nuzzled her hair, and sighed into it. "I'll search later okay?"

"Thanks, Gajeel Nii" She mumbled. "I love you, Gajeel-Nii"

Gajeel couldn't remember much else apart from watching the platinum haired woman fall asleep before dreams took him himself.

* * *

Natsu woke up and shuffled out of Gajeel's protective grasp to check the stars. Whilst various illuminated Lacrima bulbs light up the streets, it was hard to guess what time it was. He never bothered to learn how to tell time, either.

"urghhhh why'd ya have to sleep now guys" he moaned. He wasn't sure why he woke up, just realised that he had to… hear …something…smelt familiar… "urghhh" he moaned again before shuffling over to the fire for a snack. As the coals started to dim heard a tapping at the door. "This smell…." He racked his brain trying to recall why it was so important to him.

"Who?...Is Hisui after us againnnn? Go away It's late and we aint best pleased about earlier" The tapping still continued. He groaned, pulling the latch back and swinging the door open.

There, stood at the door, was Erza.

"H….HUH?"

"hey, Natsu" she looked around the corridor she stood in. "Mind if we come in?"


	8. Midnight Meeting

"Erza?" Natsu stared.

"Hey…" she coughed awkwardly. By now Gajeel was starting to stir. He looked around the dim room, confusion evident before starting to shake Wendy up.

"Kid, move it will ya?..." Wendy mumbled something about five more minutes before dozing off again.

"Heel, Metal head. We just got some visitors"

"If its anything to do with fucking Hisui I'll kill them all. Twice"

"…it's a bunch of fairies" Natsu interrupted before he said too much. Gajeel stopped for a few moments before jolting up.

"What?" this time Wendy sat up, eyes blinking as she learnt what was happening around them.

"Listen, its nice and all to see you and stuff…we got stuff to do" Natsu yawned, before looking at them again. Mirajane, Lucy and Gray were all stood awkwardly around Erza. "How'd you get here anyway?" he looked baffled, they thought it best not to explain the great lengths they took to convince the guards they were Dragon-Slayer-tamers. _'I'll never recover…'_ Lucy shook her head. She wished they took her first suggestion of seduction, but Gray slammed her down saying it would never work. Stupid Gray.

"Like what? Sleeping? Still a lazy pain in the-"

"Shut up Ice princess"

"Please, Natsu. Just five minutes? We really miss you guys…" Erza trailed off again.

Gajeel sighed. "Just let them in will ya? It'll be troublesome if you know who finds out they got in here" Lucy was really desperate to find out who you know who was, she pictured a really angry monster, probably someone like Porlyusica.

Natsu snorted but let them in anyway. "If Alza frea- I mean gets scared, their outa' here" Gajeel muttered a response of agreement with his rules. Natsu waited before they all entered the suite before slamming the door shut. "So, what's up, Fairy Tail?"

"We miss you guys" Mira gave a bright cheerful smile, hoping to fix the atmosphere.

"….so much you had to invade our territory at night?" Natsu looked really confused. "We miss you, doesn't mean we invade"

"…You used to" Lucy pouted, remembering all the days that she'd wake up next to Natsu by mistake. She really didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea, and he never helped with convincing Mira that they didn't have a thing between them.

"Times change" Natsu yawned again, pulling his scarf closer to him.

"Hey…think you could come back to Fairy Tail?" Mira looked down at the floor "In truth, Master misses you to. He feels bad, his just too stubborn to apologize to you first…"

"It seems you do not understand a dragon's pride, my dear" Sylvette was sat up, running her hands through her hair as she re-tied her pigtails. "Natsu, why are they here? I don't mind as much as it's far too late and she's still sensitive from earlier…"

"Dunno yet" he yawned out. "But Vetty is right, you clearly don't understand our pride if you think we can just go back"

"Flamebrain, you aren't a real dragon"

"huh?"

"So you shouldn't fuss over your dragon's pride or whatever. Your human-" a look passed between Gajeel, Natsu and Wendy. It was a cross between a smirk and holding back laughter. It was freaky, whatever it was.

"We were raised by dragons" Natsu tilted his head "What does that make us really?"

"what?"

"Nothing" He Lazily crossed his legs as he sat back on the floor. "So, what's up?" The room felt incredibly awkward and they spent a few moments just staring at one another, Erza carefully inspecting the sleeping monster girl who caused so much damage to Jenny earlier that day, or yesterday. Nobody was quite sure of the time.

"Tea?" Sylvette offered. Thankful that the silence was filed, they all mumbled something along the lines of yes. "Coming right up" she smiled, before turning to Natsu with a frighteningly sweet smile. "Natsu… as we don't happen to have fire eating unicorns I'll have to assume you're the one responsible for that being out. If you don't relight that fire I swear I'll-"

"Done, done!" he moaned, setting the logs on fire with a quick roar of fire, allowing her to put the kettle onto the hook. "How have you guys been?" he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, feeling like something had to be said.

"Okay, I guess. I mean, we did tons of training. I'd say Gray surpasses you know, Natsu" Lucy smiled, trying to bring back the friendly rivalry that was once their between Gray and Natsu.

"Huh, I doubt it" He mumbled. "We did nothing _but_ training since we settled down"

"Huh, come to think of it, where did you guys go? I mean…you met a guild or something but?" Lucy was pretty curious to hear the story behind their new family.

"We made one" Gajeel yawned, sprawling out on the floor again. "Didn't find it, bunny girl. They found us"

"…No, you found us" Sylvette frowned a little, recalling it slightly different to how he was.

"wait…Are you sure?" Wendy cocked her head to the right in a curious manner. "I was sure that you found us"

"Wendy my dear, You were poisoned. Of course you don't know… You found us… ah… wait…" She placed a snow white finger on her chin, tapping it lightly as she recalled the events of their meeting.

"Yer wrong, wench. You found _them_ but then I found yo- Whatever. Point is we all met and that's how the guild started" Mira couldn't help but feel painfully nervous. They were poisoned and they didn't know about it, they really had been through hardships.

"Huh…so I guess you two are also Slayers?" Mira asked them politely. "I saw her today, she was very-" she stopped dead when a dangerous look passed the four who were awake. She coughed politely before continuing. "She was very strong…" she spoke carefully, making sure her words didn't triggers something.

"The Wench and the Weed are both slayers" Gajeel said gruffly. Natsu made an 'Aye' in response, reminding Gray that someone was missing.

"Where are Happy and the others then?" An awkward atmosphere passed amongst them.

"Their hostages" Natsu blunted stated.

"Natsuu Nii…." Wendy moaned in defeat.

"SALAMANDER!" Gajeel gave him a withering look."Do you have an off switch!?"

"What?! They _are_ aint they?! Hisu-"

"Hush now Natsu!" Sylvette sighed. "Our exceed aren't with us at the moment for certain unforeseeable-"

"I meant to ask as well, but _why_ are you staying at the palace?" Gray interrupted her. He was only concerned with Natsu and Gajeel, not some random woman. Natsu pitied him a little as he unwittingly annoyed the young woman.

"Personal reasons-"

"I was asking my friends" he interrupted again. In the blink of an eye, Gray was soaking wet. "Wah?" Natsu and Gajeel could no longer contain their laughter.

"I knew the wench would do that" Gajeel's deep voice spluttered out between laughter. "We were asked to come here and participate in the games"

"That's what they meant by special reasons huh?"

"Sort of yes…"

"So it's rigged that you'll win?" Lucy scowled; she didn't like this one bit. "That's not fair! Fairy Tail is trying super har-"

"Of course it aint rigged!" Natsu growled "Were just needed here, so the Games are a distracti-" Gajeel face palmed as Natsu once again revealed too much. "Look, you really should go...It's not so much we don't want to see you as it isn't…safe" Natsu looked away, avoiding eye contact.

"Are you guys in trouble?" Mira's eyes were filled with concern.

"no we are not in anything…too..troublesome...at all…" Wendy laughed nervously at Mira, It was obviously a lie, but she was trying so hard to lie they hadn't the heart to argue with her.

Gajeel snorted. "Why should you give a shit anyway?"

"NOW LOOK HERE…" Gray was getting pissed by their attitude. Sure, shit happened and he felt like hell for what occurred but that didn't mean they could judge them and treat them badly.

Alza stirred at the sudden noise, she sat up to attention. "Wah…?" She wiped drool from her mouth. "What's going on guys…why are you here?" her eyes narrowed as she hissed at the uninvited guests.

"Fairy Tail came to pay us a visit" Wendy crawled over to her side. "Don't worry, its okay"

"please don't leave us…"

"Yer freakin' Weed. Did you forget what we promised?" Gajeel sighed before looking back the fairies in front of him. "Something Bad Is happenin'. Please, get outa here while you still can"

"And loose the games? Like hell"

"The games are nothing compared to what will happen…"

"And what will happen?" Mira looked at him cautiously. She had to keep in mind that they weren't quite the people they remember. They'd been through hardships, and to top it all off, the guild had reopened their wounds.

"Gajeel Nii…" Wendy warned. He just shrugged.

"Whatever, Girlie. Just don't come bawling your eyes out to me again when you start worrying over them again" She thumped him hard on the chest. Lucy was sure she heard Wendy mutter 'bastard' at him, but pretended she misheard_. 'As if Wendy Chan would call someone that…'_

"Wendy was crying?" Alza stared at him, then her, then him. "Because of them?" she glanced back to the fairies.

"Heel" Natsu casually replied. "Our frie- I mean. Our old Nakama aint a threat, you don't have to bite"

"If they ever hurt you I'll kill them" Her voice was apathetic. She was serious, it seemed.

"Now look here, you keep accusing _us_ of hurting them, what if you're hurting them by suggesting we will? You're too clingy!" Lucy was sick and tired of the pair of the new slayers. Important to some stupid prophesy or not, she wasn't going to stand by and watch her friends get alienated against them.

"Please don't fight…" Wendy sighed.

"She's the one who starts it! Can't you see how possessive they are of you guys? It's _freaky_!" Lucy saw the girl wince at the word freaky. 'That's sort of what happened during her fight…' she recalled. She was about to ask about the seemingly taboo word, when her All three of their old Nakama were growling at her, fangs bared.

"Could it be that you dislike that word, Alza-san?" Mira spoke up in a clear voice. The Fairy Tail mages exchanged a look of worry between them all. _'Lucy stepped on a landmine…'_ Gray shook his head.

Natsu's eye's narrowed when he saw Alza openly wince at the word '_Freaky'_. That was the final straw "_Get out_" He snarled at them and for the first time in a while, Lucy felt afraid of her best friend.

"N-Natsu?"

"You heard me. Get out" His voice sounded dangerously like a growl. "Human's are all the same!"

"You are a human…" Lucy frowned. _'What is with them?'_

"Wrong! We aint human. We're dragon-"

"Oi, shit for flames, we went over this. You were born to human parents-"

"who abandoned us…" His voice shook with the raw emotion he was expressing. Natsu was bad with words, everyone knew that, but right now his voice rang out with pain and hurt. "Humans abandon each another when it suits them. We were weak so you abandoned us, just like our parents back then. But us? We know how the world works, We won't stick to our self imposed limits. We are dragons"

"YOUR DRAGON'S ABANDONED YOU TOO; DOES THAT MEAN YOU AREN'T DRAGONS EITHER?" Gray roared in retaliation. He didn't mean to bring up the taboo. He was just so mad…

"That's right…who'd want us?" All eyes turned to Wendy as she spoke up. "All five of us here, we were abandoned by the people who created us, then abandoned by those who gave us meaning, I was then abandoned by Jellal-San to a ghost. Even the ghost left me… Now the guild… I thought I was safe… but somehow… I want to keep fighting. I don't want to whine and feel pity…I want to live…" She wiped her teary eyes with her hand before looking up with renewed determination.

"Wendy! I didn't mean-" He stopped dead and inwardly cursed himself. "I'm sorry…"

"You should go now" Natsu grew cold. He considered three of the four his best friends. The other was a surrogate mother to him after what happened with Lissanna… how wrong he was. He opened the door and forlornly they each walked to it. The atmosphere had turned too sour for them to carry on trying.

"Hey Natsu Nii? Your right. This isn't our world at all" The sky maiden's face looked devoid of any emotion. She grew apathetic in a split second. "Goodbye, Fairy Tail"

Erza stared in disbelief. Their operation 'bring them back before it's too late' just crashed and burned.

* * *

_A/N Not to happy with this chapter, But It unfortunatly it was needed for the story to progress. I rewrote about four times before giving up to the better one uvu_


	9. Pandemonium

For the third day in a row, Draconia Claw was squabbling before the first challenge even began. After a game of rock paper scissors, Gajeel was picked for the game 'Pandemonium'. Natsu, on the other hand was so positive that he cheated he wanted a rematch. Apparently turning your hand into a pair of iron scissors is taking it too far, according to Natsu at least.

"Lightning rod"

"Matchstick"

"Rust Crotch"

"Lizard tongue"

"…Guys?" Wendy sighed. They'd never listen to her… "If you don't stop I'll wake her…"

Immediately, they stopped fighting. "Go for it Gajeel, you can do it" Natsu forced enthusiasm through gritted teeth. "When Soggy brains wakes up, of natural causes she better be pleased…" He almost growled at Wendy, emphasising the natural part.

"Do yer' best, big guy!" Alza gave a huge, Natsu like grin before punching him lightly on the arm. They watched Gajeel walk off, down to the arena zone.

"…huh, It must be a girl thing to mess up walking down-" Natsu was punched in the face before he could finish his insult.

* * *

After Erza's impressive performance, the audience was stood dumbfound.

"…Well…It was nice to think that we could win?" Alza wailed out a little. After last night, she managed to sleep a lot (After being sang to sleep by Gajeel, of all people) but she was still feeling a little pessimistic. After seeing that performance from the scary Titania, she had lost all hope and dreams of grandeur together. _They. Were. Screwed._

"…bitch…" Gajeel muttered under his voice from the arena. His sensitive ears were tuned into what his team mates were saying. He'd have to put up one hell of a performance for their ranking to beat that, but he'd be damned to lose to a member of _that_ guild.

He scowled, only half listening as the pumpkin droned on and on about the MPF or _'magic power finder'_ as was its proper title. He was starting to think of all the ways he could destroy it. Maybe slowly or if he concentrated enough energy, he could tap it in just the right spot and boom, it would shatter. He thought openly blowing it up would be the most fun. As he picked the last straw, he had to go eighth. He knew damned well how he was going to defeat the damned thing and come out top. After all, he forced his second origin open in a single week, beating the Salamander by a few hours. He forced himself into the dragon force so many times it was physically painful. He could damn well-

"…Shit" He sighed. "The fuck are they doin' here" He threw his hand in the air, giving some sort of signal to his teammates. Makarov watched with curiosity as Natsu and Sylvette darted off from the area they were in. _'what on earth does that mean…' _He glanced at the first, who merely nodded. She saw it too.

Silence fell upon the arena as armed guards walked into the set area. "Gajeel Redfox?"

"Hmm?" He gave a spine chilling grin, watching in pleasure as a few of the newbie guards shuddered and let out audible whimpers._ 'Damned greenhorns'_ he inwardly laughed, taking vast enjoyment in their suffering.

"You're under arrest" Gajeel raised an eyebrow before giving his response. People waited with baited breath, expecting a manic denial or some sort of plea. Would their team be disqualified from the content?

"What for today?" Gajeel looked genuinely irritated. "I thought they dropped the charge-"

"GAJEEL NII, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?!" Eye's turned to a red faced Wendy in the viewing box. She was furiously waving, but what caught the eyes of the closely watching astral projection for team Fairy Tail, was the girl next to her, who was furiously mouthing something…

"J-U-S-T G-O W-I-T-H I-T" Mavis spelt out, to the third master who was by her side. "…They knew about this…" She tilted her head in intrigue. "Just what is going on… I wonder" she looked back at Makarov with wide, all knowing eyes. He knew the question was rhetorical, but he didn't know either.

Gajeel nodded before sighing. "Shudap, Brat! Alright, take me away" Gajeel gave another nightmare inducing grin again before walking off after them, arms tied behind his back with a magic binding rope.

"…K…Kabo?" The pumpkin was left startled. "…Team Draconia Claw receive last place…after…that?" A sigh of relief was passed between the remaining guild members in the Slayers corner, before the results were called for the other teams. The only thing that they seemed affect by was Fairy Tail coming first.

Two pairs of almost feral eye's were directed at the Fairies. Neither felt familiar. They were both complete strangers. '_Just what happened to you, Wendy Chan…_' Lucy's eye's cast downwards, as she tried to summon the courage to look the girl in the eyes once more.

* * *

"…Your telling me that they don't want to see us, ever again?" Makarov could practically cry. Or hit his damned brats. "I trusted you with this…"

"Sorry, master…" Erza sighed "You can hit me!"

"Erza! Stop! Nobody can hit anybody" Lucy sighed. Her friend could be such a masochist at times.

"I'm not mad, Brats. It was my fault in the first place" Makarov closed his eyes in thought."Surely there is something I'm overlooking…" He tried to think over all of the ltitle details once more. He started to count the seven's in his head. "This is really taking Its toll on my mind it seems"

"Calm yourself, third. We have some time left…" Mavis smiled at them before disappearing off. Makarov's eyes widened_. 'Fairy tactician is the best name for her'_ the third master mused, watching as she shadowed the youngest of the ex Fairy Tail mages in Draconia Claw. He had to admit, he was curious as to where the others went…

* * *

Wendy was running at full speed, with buffs placed on her and her _'onee chan'_. She had to catch up to it…

"Hurry!" She yelled at the girl behind her. She was focused on something, the same thing she was focused on before. Alza knew that there was something she wasn't telling them. _'Hallucinating again?'_ the earth slayer was drowning in worry for the younger _(or older- they never quite worked it out)_ girl.

"What's the rush?! They're just with her highness! They weren't even arrested; she's just being dramat- wahh!" She yelped as they nearly ran straight into someone.

"STOP PLEASE! WHAT ARE YOU?!" The girl continued to wail, panting slightly as she tried to speed up. "PLEASE I KNOW YOU KNOW IT-" Once again, the sky maiden's clumsiness took its toll. With a yelp she tripped flying head over heels into someone. Not just anyone, she wasn't that lucky, it was a group of rune knights and "_MYTSTOGAN?_" She stared wide eyed at the man in front of her. "How…w…_Ohh_…" She put all the pieces together. Mystogan was stuck in Edolas till the end of time. Well, the end of his time. So that must be the other one, Jellal…

"Are you okay?" a smooth voice drawled out. Wendy turned to see Doranbolt, the reason she was on Tenrou to begin with… He extended a hand and gave a smile. She turned back to face the direction she was going. _'It's still there…waiting for me?'_

"fine" She huffed, standing up without taking his hand. "Sorry for the interruption-" His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

"I need to talk to you, next"

"Busy" She panted out a little, before struggling out from his grasp.

"I won't let you go this time" He whispered so quietly even her highly sensitive ears nearly missed it. _'What the hell does he mean by that?' _Instead, his hand moved down her wrist and hovered slightly over her hand.

"Wendy-Chan, what's gotten into you…huh?" Alza stopped, stared for a few seconds at the scene in front of her. "Wendy, If you're in trouble with the rune knights I'm gunna be mad girl. I thought we agreed to stay away from them- ooh Boyfriend?" She grinned, noting the blush upon her sister's cheeks.

"W-Wrong! _Very_ wrong!" She was in the worst possible situation, trapped between the gaze of both of her previous crushes. Well, the earth land counterpart of one of them but it was the same right?... she would have to think that over later_. 'No! I looked away!'_

Her face fell. She lost sight of the light… a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Miss Marvell? Are you hurt?"

"Where did you go?... She sniffed in. Everyone stared dumbfound at the girl, who was only staring in the direction she was running.

"Wendy! Focus!"

"Please come back…" Doranbolt let go of her in confusion, only vaguely aware he let go, she staggered in the direction she was going, arm outstretched and eyes wide. "W…what are you?" Jellal, took this distraction to disappear into the crowds, making a note to ask someone about her weird behaviour earlier.

"Shit…" Doranbolt shook his head_. 'I'll deal with her later'_ he swiftly decided. "After him!" he directed, trying to find Jellal once more.

* * *

"How do you think they are?" Sylvette whispered to her fiery companion as they walked down the cold stone corridor. The walls were growing thinner and thinner, shaping it like a triangle. Sylvette's fear of the dark was starting to reappear itself, forcing Natsu to light up the corridor with a flaming fist. It didn't help much, since she also hated the heat, and the narrow space made it feel like they were inside a furnace.

"Stop worryin'. They'll be fine" Natsu pleaded. He was used to this, her worrying about them, but it was the fourth time she asked him in the past twenty minutes.

"mmm, sorry" She gave a weak smile. "I'm just nervous…" she reasoned with herself. "Wrongly so"

"…How about we go back, just to see her into battle?" Natsu stopped to ask her, he noticed beads of sweat running down her brow. She was scared, not just because of her fears. She was worried for her family, just like he was.

"…can we?" Natsu patted Sylvette's head, in the manner he tended to with Wendy.

"Lets go, we'll get back in time if we go now" He promised her. He could tell by her expression, that that alone was enough to calm her.

* * *

During the afternoon, everyone was waiting for team Draconia Claw to be removed. Only two of their members showed up to watch the fighting, so surely it was a broken rule? Nothing happened. _'They have some sort of allowance it seems…' _Makarov noted as the two girls leaned on the ledge of their lookout.

They watched with half interest, Wendy sipping on a smoothie as the fighting occurred. Millianna vs. Semmes was a pretty interesting fight, thought Wendy still felt uncomfortable with any form of combat. They were suitably shocked when Laxus came in as a replacement for Cana (Who was out cold on booze) to fight against Alexei from Raven Tail. The suspicious guild being disqualified after it was revealed they all took part in the fight. Wendy was a little glad that Fairy Tail won, but only because Raven Tail scared her _(or so she kept saying)._

When her own name was called out to fight, she gulped hard. She was hoping it wouldn't be, but they were forced into a corner given the fact the other members (who hadn't fought) were away without the slightly excuse given.

"…please wish me luck" Alza laughed a little at her friend whimpered in fear.

* * *

Wendy walked down the corridor, anxiety speeding her heart up as she prepared herself for a battle. A pang of loneliness and longing hit her, as she saw in the distance Chelia with two of her team mates by her side. She was alone. 'They don't know how lucky they are' she mumbled miserably. She caught a familiar whiff though, one that reminded her of the smell of the ocean and the comforting Smokey scent of her brother.

"N…Natsu Nii? Sylvette Nee?" she whispered, her voice caught in her throat. Nobody appeared. Instead, a light breeze carried a familiar white, scaly looking scarf to her. "…Thank you…" her voice caught once again, tears threatening to spill. She stopped feeling so jealous of Chelia as she wrapped herself in her brothers love. She could feel them, watching her in the shadows.

"I'm all fired up!" She mimicked Natsu, walking off with determination. _'I won't let you down, Guys'_

* * *

_A/N Ahh, I wanted to get Wendy's fight done, but had to much I needed to put in first *sobs* still, I hope you enjoyed this. \(*^*)/ You are probably curious why it was named Pandemonium, after I skipped over that. It was more a reference to the day that we are on currently in the story, and the meaning of Pandemonium in the sense of "_**_wild and noisy disorder or confusion; uproar._**_" so no content is missing from this chapter ^^_


	10. The Sky Maiden

As Wendy walked onto the battle field, everyone seemed to quieten down. People noted the appearance of her teammates scarf, but none more than those in Fairy Tail. '_His precious muffler?!' _Mira was shocked. '_Even Lissanna wasn't allowed to wear that as children…'_

Chelia tripped, causing uproar once more. "Ah!" Wendy sped up to help the girl "Are you okay?!" She tripped, once again falling down and scraping her knee. "ahh…" Once again, laughter resounded.

"…Lets have a good fight, Okay Wendy chan?" Chelia smiled.

"…yes! Thank you, Chelia San!" she bowed fairly low, before time was called. The fight had begun. _"ARMS X VERNIER!"_ The sky maiden cried out, casting buffs on herself. Running a full circle around her opponent, Wendy fired another attack. "Sky dragon's wing!"

Her eyes widened as black wind appeared around the other girl_. 'no…no way…'_

"Hey, Wendy Chan, Guess my magic" The pink haired girl smiled. Unconsciously Wendy clung onto the white scarf around her neck. "I'm the Sky god slayer!" She sent a gust of wind against the bluenette, as the dragon's child blocked the wind; she was hit immediately by a sky god dance. Her frighteningly slender body was blown away into the sky.

"oh…I thought so when I saw that wind" Wendy's voice shook. A god is higher than a dragon. For most people, that is. Using the force of the wind she threw a punch as strong as she could muster.

"Dragons may be mighty, but Gods are omnipotent" Chelia also grabbed the wind, manipulating it to her will so it would boost her attacks. Their hands and fists clashed, neither really winning as each hit they planted, their opponent did the same.

As Wendy fell to the ground, slamming hard against the concrete floor, Chelia stopped. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I hurt you…"

"Stop that…" The sky maiden brought herself up onto shaky feet. "I don't need your pity. So long as I have my precious guild, I will keep fighting, even if you beat me to the ground a thousand times over"

"Oh, then we should enjoy this more, right?"

"…I never enjoy fighting" Wendy threw another punch, stopping to catch her breath. "It's quite the opposite. I hate fighting more than anything in this world, but I will fight because my guild needs me to, never because I want to" Chelia watched as the girl inhaled deeply, swallowing the air as she went.

"Huuuhh…I guess I can eat the air to, if that's the case" As the commentators went wild, stating how the air had gone thinner, Wendy stopped eating and took the moment of the girls distraction to strike her again.

"Chelia San, just a question…" Wendy's voice was calm, no longer shaking as she ate the air around her. "Do you know the name of the god you're powers is against?"

Chelia chewed on the air around them, before answering. "How should I know?"

"Do you believe in the god who gave you powers?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chelia placed hits upon the girl once more. "I don't really get what you're on about, but no. God's died out years ago…" Chelia dodged a hit from Wendy. "But I don't think that a dragon could ever measure up to a god"

"I don't believe in any real gods either" Wendy confessed. "Why would a god give someone as pitiful as me life?" Wendy gave a weak grin. "But I disagree that a dragon could never measure up to a god"

"Huh? What are you on about?"

"To me, Dragons are gods" Wendy moved out the way of another attack, before sending a gust of wind flying at the girl. "I don't have to be a god slayer, to have a power equal to your own" Wendy breathed out, finally sounding confident. "SHATTERING LIGHT: SKY DRILL! " She shot out the secret move, putting all her remaining magic into it. Her manic spell casting and buff casting had taken its toll. Chelia sighed, before casting her own signature spell.

The sky dragon slayer just stared out, trying to remain conscious and upright. "n…no way" she exhaled deeply, trying to eat more air.

"Do you want to give up, yet?" she looked at Wendy cautiously. "I can enjoy fighting, however there isn't any love in a one sided victory"

"I told you once, I'll tell you again. I do not want your pity" Wendy was visually shaking as she pushed her body further to the limits. "I will fight for my Guilds honour" She drew the white scarf tighter around her neck. "They trust me to fight to the best of my skills. I promised I would…" as she clung onto the cloth tightly and breathed in the comforting scent she remembered so well she felt calmer again.

"If that is really how you feel, I'll be merciful and finish this with one blow" Chelia's voice sounded like she was bragging. Black wind gathered around Chelia's hands. Wendy could hear her heart beating loud in her ears as adrenaline started to take over. She only had once chance for this, and she wasn't even sure she could do it. But still, she'd give it a shot.

The Sky god slayers guild mates were telling her to cancel the attack, at risk of killing the seemingly fragile '_Wendy Tan'_ as the commentators dubbed her.

The crowds went silent; you could probably have heard a pindrop as they stared. Wendy forced Chelia to miss by replacing her physical strength, before swallowing the attack.

'_WHAT?!_' Makarov's eyes buldged as he recognized that tactic. Natsu did the same with the godslayer he fought, swallowing the black flames that engulfed him. But to imagine Wendy would do the same? She was always far too sensible for that…

Wendy's power was replenished; she gulped loudly as she swallowed it all down. "hmm…what would Natsu Nii say now… AH! Thank you for the meal!" she bowed politely to her opponent who stared dumfounded. Wendy was about to do her own attack when her body convulsed in agony. She whimpered, clutching her throat, it was as if she couldn't breathe. A little blood leaked from the side of her mouth, she wiped it away before it could drip onto the scarf. She felt like she had been poisoned.

No, wait, when she was poisoned it wasn't _this_ painful.

Her hair seemed to grow, as she took a hazy look from behind long pink locks of hair. Her ankles and wrists erupted out with feather shaped scales. She stood, up in her tattered clothes on shaky legs.

"w…what?" Wendy looked teary eyed in confusion. "It's happened again?"

"No…" Makarov gasped from the audience. "that's…"

"The dragon Force" Mavis finished his statement, nodding in agreement. "This is troublesome…" She admitted.

Meanwhile, Chelia was trying hard not to scream at her scale covered opponent in front of her. "w…Wendy chan?" She gulped._ 'What the hell has happened?!'_

"I'm not really sure how this happens, but it does, sometimes" Wendy started to walk forwards, seemingly recovered from her injuries. "I don't think I am someone who should have such power, especially when I dislike combat. My friends think so to, I know they don't like me doing this. They're scared I'll hate myself, I think… And I guess that's true. But if I have to fight for my family then I can use it without feeling anything. I'm a little afraid myself, but still I can use this a little better now, Sylvette called this my Dragon force" The audience stared at her, captivated. Her voice seemed to carry in the wind; it was gentle yet loud enough for most to hear it. Despite her fragile form she looked like a warrior, her mysteriously pink locks of hair blowing in the wind. A wild, untameable look was upon her face, with a light smile to finish. '_She really looks like Natsu's sibling, now_' Lucy smiled to herself.

Across the audience, the two sabertooth slayers were watching in curiosity and admiration. Sure, they heard of the sky maiden some time ago, but a weak dragon slayer with a dislike for combat wasn't something to catch their interest. Not in the way Natsu and Gajeel did. However, there she stood, oozing with power and wearing an expression like a true dragon. To most people, this scale covered form of hers would be ugly, but to them, it was remarkably beautiful in so many ways. '_Sky maiden…_' Sting marvelled the power of her dragon force. '_If she's this strong…just how strong will Natsu and Gajeel be?'_

Wendy pounced on her, knocking the girl backwards. Her eyes seemed almost animalistic now, as she continued to throw punches and kicks, flipping over the other girl to avoid being hurt herself. When Chelia did get another hit, a kick in her midriff, Wendy dropped to the floor and rolled away before coming back with more determination to win. That's when it hit her.

'_I'm enjoying hurting Chelia san…'_ her hands covered her mouth and she took a few steps backwards, trying to regain control over her emotions.

Wendy looked down at her hands, shaking in fear. '_why do I keep doing this? … I wonder…_'

* * *

_Wendy stood, panting and covered in sweat, once again fighting Natsu who was also running out of stamina. The night had fallen around them before they noticed it, They'd been fighting since noon. _

_"Natsu Nii, a while ago when my hair went pink, what was that?"_

_"I dunno…" _

_"Gajeel did it once, too. His skin erupted in scales"_

_"True" Alza spoke up, from the side of the marked out 'battle zone' "Me and Vetty Chan have done it to. Her Mother called it Dragon Force or somethin', apparently. Natsu have you done it?" _

_"…hmm…I don't really get it, but I know I've done it before to. Erza said so a few times…I guess it's our parents, loaning us power from wherever they are" He gave his signature smile, before ruffling her hair._

_She wrapped her long limbs around his waist, burying her face in his chest. It was time out, for a few seconds at least._

_"Hey Wendy? I bet this power you got…er.. Dragon force as Sylvette called it; I bet that it's Grandeeney saying 'Fight! Hatchling' or something like that"_

_"…I think your right…"_

* * *

_'Ah, that's right…Mama wants me to'_ Wendy blinked again, mind back firmly in the present time. '_no time to dwell over back then right now…' _She prepared to make another attack, when she felt a familiar presence beside her. "Who?" Wendy stared at the glowing light just behind Cheria. It had no scent, nothing but whenever she was close to it she felt this odd comfort, she longed to hold it close. "What are you? Did you do this to me? Did you push me?"

Chelia watched as the girl openly conversed with thin air. "Oh heavens I think I've poisoned her…" The pink haired girl felt a ball of grief rise up. She was hoping to be friends with her…The dragon slayer with identical powers…

Wendy, however was staring wide eyed at whatever hallucination she was seeing. Chelia took this distraction to finish the girl off, not wanting to hurt her too much. "Please! Wait! Don't go!" Wendy whimpered. Something scared the spirit entity off. Just as it was telling her…Chelia prepared black wind to send a final attack; Wendy herself summoned the winds around her. "Chelia San! that was rude" Wendy scolded her. Chelia just stared in utter confusion. This girl is insane, she decided. "SHATTERING LIGHT: SKY DRILL!" she cast her secret attack once again, stopping the attack from the wind slayer.

"TIME!" Mato called. All eyes turned to the pumpkin in shock. They were so immersed in the battle nobody noticed it had gone on longer than it was meant to. They both staggered back, physically exhausted. "This match was a draw!" Wendy was once again human in appearance, the inner dragon hidden like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The blunette was injured, falling to the ground in fatigue. Chelia walked over to the girl who was collapsed upon the ground and frightfully still. "You okay?" she let out a huge sigh, sighting up slightly.

"No more goodbyes…" Wendy's eyes were puffy.

"…Then let's be friends"

"h..hu?" Wendy opened her eyes, looking out curiously. "A-AH! SORRY…" Wendy blushed redder than the Scarlet hair of Erza.

"If goodbyes are hard for you, let's be friends"

"…ah…" Wendy could only blush. She wasn't sure how to answer her; she wanted to say yes but surely…

"Here! Thanks for the fight, Wendy Chan!"

"ah…t-t-t-Thank you…" The long months of being amongst her 'kind' clearly took its toll on her social skills. "Thank you for the offer Chelia san…" Wendy lowered her head again, unable to make eye contact. 'please don't hate me…'

"No! Answer it like a friend" Chelia insisted. "okay? Let's be friends, Wendy Chan!" she extended a hand. _'You look like you need a friend…' _she felt like adding, but spared the young dragon girl the humiliation.

"..a…."the pinkette glowered at her. "w…Yes!" she cried out, eyes tightly closed in embarrassment. "Please…" she mumbled under her breath. The other girl crowed cooed as 'Wendy tan' and 'Chelia tan' hatched a new friendship.

The horrors of the fight, long forgotten by the crowds.

* * *

As the day finished, Wendy made her way through the streets of crocus alone. 'Where are they…' she sighed. It would have been nice for Carla to see her fight, to support her, but that wasn't something she could worry about right then and there.

"Ahh! Mest- I mean, Doranbolt san" Wendy bowed. "I was looking for you…"

"Ah, can I help you with something?"

She drew the white scarf around her neck once more. "…can we talk?" He looked at her face and nodded. She seemed awfully serious and he did owe her a huge favour after all he put her through.

"Come on, let's get a drink" He smiled before taking her by the crook of her arm and teleporting her to the local café. A pretty young waitress served them in a highly provocative outfit that brought out Wendy's insecurities. Doranbolt could only cough lightly and look away in embarrassment to try stop the girl from switching between staring at the waitress' sizeable bust and then comparing it to her own.

They sat in a far corner, a music lacrima blurting out the latest craze of music. "How are you, Wendy?" he started, after ordering two iced teas.

"a little bruised but Chelia san helped me out a bit…" she gave a shaky smile. He wasn't surprised she was hurt, but she did really show everyone she deserved her title of 'sky maiden'."Yourself?"

"Fine…well…a lot better knowing your alive. I still feel guilty though…I'm sorry about the other day, It's just I had to capture Jella- ah…Not quite. I assumed Mystogan was actually Jellal…" Doranbolt also trailed off, unable to quite describe his joy at seeing them all alive, even if she did seem to be in a different guild. He wasn't sure if it was his fault, perhaps they're trauma was so deep that some of them had to leave? He certainly hoped not.

"Ahh! Don't worry about it, please Doranbolt san. I never begrudged you for your actions, in fact, I am grateful for you standing up for…er…them…" He could sense the displeasure in her voice as she avoided naming her old guild. _'I better not bring that up…_' he told himself.

"…I don't suppose…you…erm…I need a favour…" She trailed off. She looked down bashfully and entwined her fingers. _'This guy was Fairy Tail's ally but also their enemy, I can trust him right?'_

"oh? Sure, name it. I owe you big time anyway" she looked up, a light blush adorning her cheeks before thanking him.

"I need the maps of crocus…the older the better really…" She looked down. "you see…it sounds crazy but…"

"Trust me, Wendy san. Nothing will sound crazier than what I've already heard" he smiled gently urging her on.

"…I think there could be a connection to dragons somewhere around here. I keep seeing …this…thing. Nobody else can, It's only been since I learnt something…"

"…could it be a after effect from learning this something? You practice a lost magic, Wendy. It's dangerous-"He stopped when she shook her head furiously.

"No, It's not a miscalculation. I was given notes from Polyusciasan, who got them from my Mama…I was given them before I left the guild…" Wendy's face fell in sadness before she continued. "It's a long story, but indirectly I learnt from my Mama…" She took a final deep breath.

"Wendy?"

"I think I'm seeing a dragon's Ghost" She explained.

He stared for a while, it seemed impossible. But, he also learnt firsthand that when it came to people who were in Fairy Tail, even if they were no longer, nothing was impossible.

"Sure, give me a few hours" He nodded, a serious expression upon his face. "Rendezvous here at nine?"

"Thanks, Doranbolt san…I really, really do appreciate it" She gave an honest smile for the first time since he met her once again. She seemed so trusting, almost like a small child. Whoever stopped this child from smiling… well if only he could get his hands on them... Though, he knew he was indirectly part of the cause, he still detested seeing his friend in this state, if he could ever call himself that after what happened. "Doranbolt san, please don't worry…" She reached out to grab his sleeve. "I'm fine. Just need a little reassurance I'm not going mad" He chuckled lightly. '_Still the same old Wendy underneath all that_'

"Though, I am curious… why not ask Carla for help? Surely she'd be good at sneaking past people?" He tilted his head, watching her curious response. She seemed to falter again.

"I would, but she's…not with me"

"Ah, she's still in Fairy Tail huh?" He shook his head "Sorry I asked"

"oh! No, Carla is in Draconia Claw to!" She shook her head correcting his miscalculation. "she's loyal to me, She won't even talk to Fairy Tail, let alone be with them" She closed her eye's and a gentle look fell on her face.

"huh? But I saw her and the other Exceed from Fairy Tail talking to master Makarov last night…" He realised he said something unnecessary or wrong or…something to hurt the girl.

Her eyes snapped open.

"What?!"

* * *

_A/N ahh slightly longer chapter. Aye, I did change the Fight a little, but that was to show her power growth off a little more. I didn't want her to do the dual slayer mode as Alza also did it, however she will use it later._

_Anyway, please forgive me messing with the fight a little ^^; *hides behind sofa*_

_Does anyone support "Mendy?" or "West" or...Well, Wendy X Mest? I'm sort of indifferent, but I wanted to give her a little crush on someone and he was necessary for plot bunnies._

_Ahh, Thank you so much for reviewing._

_Also, I'd like to say thanks to a few of you in particular. _

_Yours truly - Pride__, __AntiNalu34575, sapphire dragon slayer alex__ and __treeofsakuras__ for often reviewing. it's really helpful ;v; I love you guys._

_well, everyone who reads this really? ^^ But please check out their stories and what not!~ 3_


	11. Revelations and Discovery

Doranbolt shifted uncomfortably, watching as the young girl called for the bill. "I'm sorry, Doranbolt san, but I need to go. I have to warn I mean, erm…just I'm sorry. bye!"

"Wendy…didn't it occur to you they still had their guild marks on?" Wendy's silence was all the answer he needed. _'she never thought about checking for them'_

"Sorry, I must go…"

"Wendy…."

"What? Ah! Sorry, I'll pay you back for the drink when I get money! Sorry, er…here! I have about 29 jewels?" She cringed slightly. _'I can't even buy a candy bar let alone a drink…'_ "I'm sorry, I'll pay you later…" Wendy grabbed her bag and made for the door.

"That's not what I meant; just calm down for a second will you?" Doranbolt yelled after her before quickly placed a handful of coins into the waitress's hands. "Thanks" He murmured before chasing after the young girl. "Wendy!"

"I need to go, really quickly. Sorry to ask so muc-"

"I'll walk you back"

"…It's appreciated, Doranbolt san. I mean it. But I've already asked so much of you. I'll see you tonight okay? 9PM right?" she gave a small curtsey before running off. He sighed. _'I didn't tell her there were two other exceed's with them…' _

* * *

"My feet are wet!" Natsu groaned.

"Can't you just heat yourself up, Natsu?"

"Can't, you'll get uncomfortable with the heat and complain"

"Natsu, my complaining isn't half as bad as yours is. Now, heat yourself up, please!" Sylvette groaned. They'd been walking for far too long without breaks, however, they had to sneak around the castle undetected so they'd be free of their 'leashes' as Alza liked to call them. Doing that though, meant a lot of wandering around dark tunnels and passageways, occasionally meandering around abandoned corridors.

"Why do you think Hillary wants us now?" Natsu got her name wrong, once again_. 'I wonder how he remembers my name…'_ the Albino girl considered. _'Maybe because his always around us?...'_

"Hisui" she casually corrected him. "Wants rid of all the holes in her plans. She's trying to test the limits of our powers I suppose. But really, arresting us mid tournament for a quick test is hardly going to keep us in the shadows. If anything, we're getting a bad reputation for being loud and positively criminal!" In her mind Hisui's action seemed logical, but it still annoyed her that they still weren't trusted. It annoyed her even more that people were looking down on her family and calling them monsters and freaks.

"yea, but Suey aint' got much of a plan" Natsu groaned. "It's sorta oh some dragons will appear, beat em up please"

"You really haven't been listening at all, have you?"

"…Not really" Sylvette's sunny laugh rang out.

"okay, recap, there was someone from the future, who got here through confidential means, and said there will be dragons. _Thousands_ of them. Through knowledge that was also confidential, due to a mess up in a plan that is also… confidential" She looked back at Natsu, to make sure he was following. "We, being dragon slayers are best equipped to fight the threat of dragons when they appear"

"but we dunno what confidential is, right?"

"Well, no… that's too confidential for her pets to learn, Natsu" she deadpanned. _'This isn't the best situation at all…'_

"there's to many secrets in her plan, if we ignore what she's not telling us, it's '_beat up dragons'_…" Natsu frowned. He was sure he remembered the base plan, Sylvette just confirmed it.

"…that's painfully true" As they turned into the next stone corridor, Natsu once again illuminated the pathway, holding tightly onto the other girls hand as he lead her through the dark. "…thanks" she mumbled, feeling at ease from the darkness by his clammy hand.

"No problem"

"Basically, we don't have much of an idea. Excuse my pun, dearest when I say we've been left in the dark here" she murmured, her free hand catching in the cobwebs as she felt along the wall. "However, she won't tell us anymore, her highness is jumpy. She appears to assume we want the dragons to invade"

"Well yea, our parents might be with them"

"And dragons are better than humans, yes yes, I know Natsu" they stopped abruptly. "She's right, but we don't want her to know she's right"

"so she can't trust us…" Natsu frowned. This was all to confusing for him. He made a mental note to complain at Alza later, she understood his confusion at big words.

"She doesn't trust us, rightly so. Because of this, Princess Hisui wants to keep a tight leash on us" Sylvette's voice sounded irritated, Natsu could bet she was holding herself back from spewing curse words "Arresting Gajeel was simply a way to keep us in line. I suspect it's a warning like she's saying, _please don't forget your promise or I make your lives hell_"

"…But you knew Gajeel was going to be arrested"

"That's right, because Gajeel did something to get himself arrested"

"Huh? That damned lightning rod he just did this so he wouldn't have to waltz around a dungeon with you!"

"Not quite, but it's nice to know your enjoying this as much as I am…" she silenced her hurt, but still pulled a face. "No, we needed a distraction, what better distraction than him beating up a few guards and Hisui getting annoyed. After all, when our dear little royal is annoyed she tugs our chains pretty hard…"

"…I still don't get it"

"Okay, Natsu. Wonder why she's not keeping an eye on us? Because she's busy with Gajeel. We however, escaping her gaze can wander freely until we find her big bad secret"

"…Now I get why we're here again"

"Yes. If we can find out what secret she's not telling us, then we can get ourselves a get out of jail free card" She tapped the stone next to them. "According to our noses, and following her a bit at night, this is going to be where her big _'how we got dragons here'_ secret will be"

"…Count of three?"

"Let's go" she smiled, grabbing his hand again as they walked out of the side passageway. Sylvette's violet eyes met Natsu's Onyx ones. The same thought running through their heads. Of all the things they imagined; torture chambers, dragon eggs, maybe even some sort of chamber filled with tortured dragons…with eggs? But…_that_? They stared dumbfounded at the weird looking door. The water slayer gasped, marvelling at the beauty of the golden gateway in front of them, whilst the Fire dragon slayer silently lamented over his empty stomach.

"Door for fairies?"

"How big do you think fairies are?"

"Door for big fairies?"

"No fairies Natsu, remember its dragons"

"Ah of course, door for dragons then" he nodded as if he suddenly understood everything in the world at once.

"Yes whatever you say…" Sylvette sighed, trying to memorise the full door.

"...Think we should go through it?" Natsu suggested, shrugging slightly.

"But how in heavens name would we find a key to fit…"

* * *

Wendy unlocked the door to their rooms, walking into the dim light from the opened curtains. _'I hope Natsu and Sylvette are okay…_' they really needed a catch up chat so they could figure out what they know and don't know. She was starting to feel a little out of the loop, but trusted that all together they knew enough about what's going on. Wendy herself had a huge thing to tell them. They were being double crossed by their best friends.

She walked to her bed and laid on it, a sob finally escaping her. She tried to hold the feelings in, but once again, she'd been betrayed_. "Carla… I thought you'd never leave me…"_ her voice was barely audible, but for the tanned girl sat meditating in the corner, it was loud enough for her sensitive ears to pick it up.

"Wendy chan?" She frowned, lifting her head up from her knees. "What's wrong? Is it about Popi and the others? I swear we'll get them back!" her sing song voice was a stark contrast to Wendy's silent one.

Wendy moved slightly before shaking her head. The earth slayer sighed and dragged herself of the ground to lie next to Wendy on the bed. "Wendy, tell me what's up" she ordered.

"Alza, they're not hostages"

"W-what?!" Alza frowned. "Wendy…are ….they aint dead are they?"

"No!" Wendy was utterly shocked at how quickly her friends mind progressed to such a dramatic idea. "They're with Fairy Tail" She gave a shaky smile, eyes glazed with ears.

Alza's silence was almost suffocating; desperation to hear the normally chatty girl say something was causing Wendy panic. She normally had a vacant look on her face. Kind of endearing in its own way, but made her look permanently confused. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as she stared into the other girls brown eyes.

"Say something, please!"

"What's to say, Wendy? They betrayed you. Carla betrayed you"

"At least Popi-"

"Tell me where is Popi? She's not here, if the others aint' hostages then she'll be with them"

"Popi won't have betrayed you, she's a scaredy cat!"

"So?" she shook her head. "Popi is easy to lead astray"

"…So if this is the case…If they left us, now what can we do?"

"…we..."

"They were our family, our friends… They left us just like everyone does- will. I was there when Carla hatched, I've always been with her…" she wiped a tear from her eye. "If Carla who has been with me since she was born can leave me, what about you guys?"

"Wendy…"

"maybe I should leave. Everyone will leave me in the end, I might as well just leave and then, then nobody can leave me…"

"Shut your freakin' mouth, Windy Wendy" The tanned mage scowled. "Seriously, how morbid are you? One kitty leaves your side and that's it, goodbye world?"

"….Al"

"I aint ever leaving your side. Neither is Natsu, Gajeel, Sylvette" she listed their nest on her hands. "I'd place some of my none-existent money on each of them taking a fatal hit for you, or me. And for me" she gulped, trying to find the right words before continuing her rant at the blunette "I'll never leave you. _Any of you_. You guys are my most precious nest, my family, without you guys I'm nothing…I love you. all of you, even the big guy…" her grin returned once again, and her solemn moment passed. "So Wendy! Let's say we find out what's really going on, gather the tropes and charge in for some ass-kickin' under the name of revenge?"

"So this changes nothing?"

"Nopeee~" she sang "No change. We're still family. We're just a bunch of dragons without wings, that's all" she smiled.

Wendy sighed and rolled into a more comfortable position.

"What's a dragon without its wings?" she sulked.

* * *

Sylvette and Natsu sneaked into their room, about to great Gajeel who only sushed them.

"they're nappin'" he thrust his thumb to the two girls on the bed.

"hey, on the bed for once" Sylvette clapped slightly. Never in the time had she known the two of them have either of them slept on beds. Wendy might have in her fairy tail days, but now she was more in tune with her childhood instincts of cuddling next to her family. Alza, however had _never_ slept in a bed. Ever. This was her first time, since she considered beds as the source of all evil. Sylvette never quite understood why, but Natsu stopped sleeping in his bed when they had a heart to heart chat over it and he converted to the ways of bed fearing. They were similar in weird ways…

"Don't clap yer damn wench" Gajeel chuckled slightly. "yer gunna wake em then who's to blame?"

"You will be, if you don't stop growling Metal head"

"What was that you shitty flame head?"

"Tin can"

"Matchstick"

"Errr…Lighting rod"

"enough!" Sylvette sighed. "Please, don't try me right now, Gajeel. Natsu. I'm tired and have to do some planning, and thinking, today was very confusing I'll remind you"

"Only for ye" Gajeel pulled a face. "you weren't bein' chewed up by our princess in distress"

"true" she gave a sugar-coated smile that could send shivers down the Kurogane's spine. "Thank you for your hardworking sitting and being shouted at whilst I walked around a dungeon with Natsu. With Natsu"

Natsu stared confused. Gajeel was giving the girl a look of 'I feel for you' which didn't make sence unless…"…Was than an insult?"

"what do you think?" she smiled again, telling them both to drop it.

"Well next time Salamander can do the annoyin' stuff. I don't mind the yellin' but its annoyin' not hitting back"

"huh, but tin can you won't wanna go with her either, It's always really tiring. Whenever me n' Vetty are together it always gets really hot and steamy. It sucks I'm telling you"

Gajeel stared and watched the woman flush a bright red. "N…Not like that" she denied furiously, after a few more moments of staring, Gajeel broke out into an uncontrollable fit of geehee laughter. Natsu, oblivious to anything being out of context just stared like a small kid, pouting at being left out of the joke.

Grassy green orbs shot open at the sudden noise and the tanned girl sat up. "W-what? Oh….hi guys" she rubbed her eye sleepily. "Miss anything?"

"Nothing much, just these two confessin' to their fling"

"What fling would that be, Gajeel" Sylvette's voice was enough to give someone diabetes. She was pissed.

"Huhhhh why didn't you tell me?" she sulked "I thought I was your favourite"

Sylvette cleared her thought before breathing deeply. "I we ignore the misinterpretation, Natsu and I found a door"

"huh? Reaallyy? That sucks. That sounds…normal"

"Din' look it!" Natsu protested, still annoyed he was left out of their joke.

"what about your end, how did wendy's fight go?"

"…She drew. But she went into dragon force again, I get she was being very careful but she really gotta train it" Also she "She saw something, and I'm starting to worry a little…but whatever heres the important thing"

"hmm?" Gajeel looked at her, then the still sleeping igrl. He was glad she wasn't as affected by loud noises as the earth slayer was.

"Well….she went to ask for a favour about it, something about could be important… she met with this guy err…Doranbeard. This and that happened, and she learnt something pretty damn unsettling" she climbed of the bed, thankful that Wendy was their when she fell asleep on the source of evil.

Sylvette tilted her head in interest. "go on?"

"…our exceed's are with Fairy Tail"

"So they took Happy, huh?!" Natsu let out a low growl. "I'll teach em what happens when you steal from a dragon"

"Nah...Natsu...not quite that" Her voice lost the playful edge to it, Gajeel made a mental note of her seriousness. She was never serious, so when it happend it could only mean bad things.

"guys...They're with fairy Tail willingly..."

"Huh? But that would mean" Sylvette's Violet eyes widened_. 'please no...'_

"They're leaking information, to your former guild. More importantly, they never left in the first place"

* * *

_A/N ahh, This was more of a filler/revealing stuff chapter. _

_Though I had fun writing Natsu, The fairy Door thing was a head canon I had, Idk why..._

_Also, the new anime op is so wonderful u'' as you might guess, I adore the dragon slayers so much, I'm super excited, aye~!_


	12. Change

The draconic guests were the biggest gossip around the palace, Maids, cooks, gardeners; even the pest control was desperate to catch a glimpse at the rumoured mages. It became pretty common for eye's to be on them as they were escorted from their rooms to the outside, so much so it made the wood-scented mage cringe each time she walked past. She felt like an exhibit, reminded her to much of her life after Gaia left her. To combat the strong feelings of hate that would well up inside of her, the girl would cling onto the closest of her companions, giving no care to their reaction. _As long as I'm not alone_, she'd tell herself.

Today, however, nobody watched them. Servants scuttled away like mice to avoid the ominous group. As they walked in a formation, led by the salamander. Unlike most days, they weren't wearing their seemingly uniformed outfits. Each member was wearing something completely different to the next. The leader of their small group, the fire mage (or demon, as people enjoyed calling him) wore his collar open on a dark black waistcoat, with only one sleeve tucked into his white trousers. His scaly scarf and vambrace still there from the other days though. The Kurogane directly behind him wore the same clothes he appeared at the palace in, but just like Natsu he too was wearing a vambrace on his arm.

Upon further inspection, despite all being dressed like some sort of dancing troop, each of the girls in their team _also_ wore the vambraces. The pale girl looked like some sort of exotic dancer, her long dark purple skirt flowing around her; bare footed and her slim stomach on show for all to see. Her beauty highlighted by her graceful movements, hips swaying as she took each step with confidence. But, just like the others, a solid leather vambrace with their guild mark was on her arm. The short spindly earth dragon looked like a young child dressing in her older siblings clothes. Her teal tunic was too long, going below her knees like a dress and it looked like her sleeves were ripped off purely to show the vambrace. Her black boots went high to her knees, perhaps higher, it was hard to tell. Even the tiny sky sorceress had a vambrace on her arm. Her dress vibrant green and yellow dress was sleeveless, but she had small wing like attachments on her arms and ankles, but sure enough, on her arm it was there.

Somehow, everyone preferred it when they were wearing uniform; they seemed tamed and less violent. They were like property of the royal family; they didn't have to worry about any of them crossing the boundary. In their own clothes, it felt like they might rip out someone's throat for breathing out of time.

Everyone stopped dead as a beautiful shade of green hair appeared In front of them, stopping them in their tracks. She knew well what their sudden fashion change meant. It was their first step of rebellion against her; leaving the uniforms she chose for them for their own clothes.

"You walk now you will be filed for treason"

"…I believe we have a contest to get to, your highness" Sylvette spoke up, a tone of mock politeness in her voice.

"Dressed like that?"

"Our uniforms got burnt" Natsu gave an almost evil grin at the woman in front of them. Sure she had power, but not akin to their own. Hers was political, theirs was brute force and what kind of royalty had the power to contain dragons? Sure, she could order them to be executed, but that wouldn't suit her intentions. All she could do was sit back and wait for them to hold up their end of the bargain before she could do anything to them. Displeasing them now wouldn't work in her favour, not if she wanted Fiore to be spared. Punishment would have to wait till they were no longer useful.

And by the time they finished their end of the deal, they'd be long gone with the two slayers at sabertooth anyway.

* * *

Draconia claw only half listened with interest as the pumpkin droned on and on about due to Raven tail messing up, after today one team would be eliminated. _'Not like it's important' _Gajeel sighed. He was pretty damned bored of all this 'let's play games' nonsense they were expected to do for a guise. If someone told him that he would one day not give two shits about his guild being the strongest he would have laughed. Whilst killing them in several very painful ways.

Now, however, there was something so much more important to him than being deemed the strongest. He just wanted his hands on the dragon that caused him humiliation; he just wanted people to _stop_ leaving him when it suited them. He just wanted a home, really and just because his guild was now known as strong, it didn't change the act he didn't properly have a home. He didn't need anything but the cave they took residence in, hell there were some day's where he wondered what the hell he was doing still breathing, not that he could tell anyone but the Salamander that as the girls were too fussy and would worry if he mentioned it. Natsu just agreed awkwardly with a 'Same'.

"It would be good if we could get eliminated today…" Sylvette moaned a little, fed up of playing games for the royal family's amusement. Natsu nodded, leaning into her till their heads touched as they slouched over the side of the box they were viewing the arena in. His eyes were fixated on Sabertooth's slayers, just like before.

"Why not make Wendy do the first one then?" Wendy turned and glared long and hard at the older boy.

"What…are you implying?"

"Ah…because….you know…your tired" he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Just a suggestion…"

"A good one, Girlie hasn't had a go yet" Gajeel agreed.

"Your both saying I'll get knocked out"

"Nah…." They said in unison, awkwardly shuffling away from the girl.

"Fine. I'll do it, and show you I won't lose! In fact I'll come first!"

"Wendy…we _want_ to come last" Sylvette reminded her. The sky maiden frowned, but shook her head, still pretty determined.

"Y…we…yeah…Well I'll come last but do it well?" she trailed off, confused herself about how she was meant to perform. She wasn't even sure who was the one insulting her anymore. "I'll do it!" and just like that, her name appeared on the list for _naval battle_.

* * *

As each member went down to the arena wearing their swimsuits, Wendy became exceedingly more and more awkward. '_Whyyy did I agree….._' she sank further and further into a state of shame, with a little bit of self hate thrown in. She stood their wearing a blue frilly bikini with a blue and white tartan pattern. It was humiliation personified. On the small of her back, a relatively little area of her skin was almost scaly, with small white ones similar to her mother's finer scales. That was her biggest worry, someone commenting. The already shy girl was very self conscious about how it looked, she noticed vermillion scales on Natsu's arm, that were constantly hidden by the vambrace. She was positive that she saw similar ones on the back of Gajeel's neck, or on Alza's slender ankles. However, she never had to worry about anyone asking in their family. Because that would mean they all accepted they had them…

And they were too scared to think about what it would mean.

Wendy listened as Mato explained the rules of _Naval battle_. She already knew who she wanted go against. Apart from Rocker, every member was female much to the commentator's pleasure as they cooed and placed bets on who would win the contest. Wendy looked at each opponent, Chelia and she shared a small excited wave, acknowledging each other's presence. The sky sorceress felt hope rise back up in chest and her heart pound really fast, she didn't realise Chelia was serious about being her friend, but felt so ecstatic that she meant it. She wanted Chelia as a friend, no matter how she tried to deny it. She seemed…nice. _Trustworthy._

However, that hope left when she noticed Lucy, trying to smile and play at being her friend. Apathy washed over her, she couldn't bring herself to feel angry or anything in particular. Instead of dwelling on it, she simply turned her head to the other opponents. Risley could be a tough opponent, but the one she wanted to avoid the most was Minerva, she didn't feel suicidal no matter how she had to try get out of play early. Besides, she wanted to take Jenny out first for a little pay back.

The moment _Naval battle_ began, Chelia went straight in to challenge Wendy, considering it the first time they'd get to play in the beach…well, near enough at least. Wendy had to dodge past the powerful wind attack which caused a knock on effect with all the other players. Risley law was sent flying out of the sphere, only seconds after Jenny managed to stay in by kicking Rocker out and taking his space. Wendy took the opportunity to try getting Jenny out for good. However, the celestial mage she was ignoring had a different idea; she summoned Aquarius, sending water spiralling around at all Lucy's opposition, Chelia going close to flying out, Wendy automatically reached out to stop the girl spiralling out. The moment Chelia steadied herself in the water, Wendy instantly regretted her decision. She could hear her team mates yelling at her comically from outside the water sphere.

"oh no…I'm sorry!" she wailed, realising she just helped her opponent and made her own life difficult.

"Thanks! Wendy chan!" She paid back Wendy's kindness by blasting her away with a wind attack. In a last desperate attempt to take Jenny out for what she did to Alza, she grabbed hold of the other girl hand slipping until she grabbed onto her bikini's tie. Once again, she felt utterly humiliated as time seemed to slow, Jenny's bikini top floating off in the sphere.

"…Oops" Was all Wendy could think to say as she landed straight on her butt.

She listened to Jenny's manic cursing (aimed at her of course) as she kicked Chelia out of the sphere, before being knocked out by Aquarius herself. Wendy watched, curious as to how Lucy would fair against the sadistic woman in the sphere. As Lucy made to order Aquarius for another attack, the mermaid spirit stopped and suddenly disappeared, from what the blonde girl was whining about it sounded like she had a date. As Lucy made to get another key, she noticed her keys were missing from her belt. She looked straight ahead at the last opponent left, Minerva.

The audience gasped and wailed, half excited to see how this goes and half terrified that the young woman might be killed by the seemingly psychotic sabertooth mage. Wendy, however just smiled. She was glad she took Jenny out (at least on some level) so in her eyes, she completed both of her tasks. Now she didn't have to take part in a game, she kept an eye of for her 'hallucination' to pass the time. She received a bundle of old papers maps and even a 3D lacrima Map, which showed a numerous amount of places below street level. She didn't even want to think about what trouble he'd get into if someone found out he took it... or the cost of said maps.

When she scanned them earlier, nothing showed anything out of the ordinary, he got the oldest dating back to X617, though she was almost scared to touch that. However, absolutely nothing appeared to stand out. It all seemed painfully normal, which worried her more. Did that really make her a loony? She reminded herself to talk to everyone about what she was seeing, before screams broke her out of her thoughts.

"STOPP!" The commentators were yelling, as Lucy's limp body fell to the floor. She held on until the end of the timer was called it seemed, enduring a hellishly long period of torture for her guilds sake. _'That's almost commendable'_ Wendy watched as people ran around, members of fairy tail coming onto the arena's floor and challenging members of Sabertooth. Around them was a blur of insults being thrown, the crowds jeering at Sabertooth to take on Fairy Tail. 'Childish' the sky maiden sighed at their attitude. It was all in the rules, so surely anything goes?

Wendy watched as Chelia immediately began emergency treatment on her old Nakama. Her naturally caring nature called out to her _'go help!',_ but she just stood there like a rabbit in the headlights unable to drag herself out of apathy for the girl. "Wendy chan! Support me!" Chelia begged as she drained all her remaining energy into saving the blonde's life.

"I refuse" Chelia's face fell as her new friend shook her head. Wendy turned to walk away, when her foot was captured by ice. Correction, _Gray's_ ice. "What are you doing?" she tilted her head to the side, like a curious child.

"Damn it Wendy, put your problems with us behind you for a second. Quit acting like a brat and heal Lucy"

"I don't want to waste my energy on someone as useless as her" Wendy was shocked by herself; the words were just falling out. Less than a year ago she would have died of shock to hear she could disregard someone's life, even if it was the enemy, so saying that to a former friend was unbelievable. Still, she couldn't be nice forever. She had to toughen up, if she wanted to live in the world that was rejecting her time and time again she had no choice.

"She was your Nakama! You should care about her!" Erza looked away from her spat with Minerva, fury and shock rising as the young girl continued to ignore Lucy's severe injuries.

"Why is that, Gray san?" She shrugged. "I don't care. I have no _need_ to care about a bunch of fairies"

Gray shook in anger. "Since when did you grow a spine? By ignoring it your just as bad as Sabertooth are!" Wendy blushed and turned away. She wasn't good at verbal confrontation.

Just as Gray was about to threaten Wendy into helping Chelia save Lucy, another person joined in their verbal spat. "I suggest you leave her alone" Gray turned to look at his rival.

"Natsu…." Gray groaned. "Will you two get over yourselves and think about Lucy's life?"

"Hmm…" his eye's looked dangerous and wild, Gray had to stop himself from shaking. This was the same guy he was fighting with every day with for most of his years. He had no reason to be afraid. "if you continue trying to force Wendy to do something she doesn't want to do, then I guess I'm just gunna have to put you in a state to match Luce" Natsu melted the ice, steam rising up. Wendy and Natsu stalked off of the battle field, leaving the Ice mage shaken. _'they're so different now…' _he took a few moments to recall when Lucy first came to the guild, how concerned Natsu always seemed to be, but compared to now, things had really changed.

Lucy was carried away by the medical team and Chelia, going straight to the infirmary to heal her.

Erza had already thrown herself back into the spat with sabertooth, desperate to maim Minerva for harming her Nakama. Cana however, took a quick glance up at the members of Draconia Claw as they watched. The 'don't-call-me-freak' girl was bickering at high speed with Gajeel who held her fist in a lock. She moved along to Sylvette, the mother type figure who seemed hell bent on killing them if any of their party of ex guild mate dragon slayers was upset. She was stood serenely, a pasty white hand propping up her chin as she stared at someone. Cana shuddered and turned away when she noticed _who_ she was looking at. Her violet eyes were fixated on the Fairy Tail alcoholic, an almost twisted smile on her face.

Makarov watched from above, glad that Lucy was taken to safety and shaken that Wendy chose to do nothing. "_Things are getting worse, Third_" Mavis looked at him with teary eyes.

"Then we'll have to use force to bring them back to us" He placed his wrinkled hand upon his face and pinched between his eyebrows. "If any of us live long enough to". If their current power levels were anything to go by, the once weakest slayer being able to go into dragon force, he could only worry as to what more training would do to them.

* * *

_A/N_

_ahh, this chapter was hard to write, I feel bad for making them OOC, but hopefully you can see where this came from? They will improve over time XD it will be a long story /not even half way in the damned thing yet Lololol. the past few chapters have been Wendy centric I think...Which is 99% to apease my friend who wants to kidnap wendy and mother her to death, and is my beta reader, editor and the peice of %$%$W&% friend I throw head canons at for my stories. She litterally pointed out all the things I forgot to add which made it 3 chapters of Wendy POV. with a few others thrown in. Well Mokimo hope your happy now =_= _


	13. Hunger

As the group of slayers made their way to get lunch, they realised at that vital moment something utterly humiliating (and downright depressing).

"We never got …our…a…allowance" Sylvette felt ashamed to admit that the only reason they could it was by the handouts they were given each morning from her highness. As daring as their little rebellion was, it meant going hungry; something which was very hard for a bunch of people who had the appetites of elephants, even if some of them ate with a bit more class than Natsu. The fact that she had to rely on someone like that was an insult to her pride. _All _of their pride's_. _

"…Twig?" Alza held up a pile of sticks she stole from a tree, popping two in her mouth as she went.

"…I'll pass" Wendy tried her best not to cringe at the weird crunching noises that were coming from her. At least she was eating… she tried to stop her stomach grumbling some more. '_Maybe if I eat air…'_ she started inhaling deeply and trying to digest the oxygen around her. That was until a fist connected to the back of her head.

"You better stop that now" Gajeel growled slightly. He knew what she was up to the second the air seemed to thin and grew impatient. "you aint' eatin yet"

"But Gajeel nii…." She whined slightly, tugging his arm.

"Wendy's right…If we just swallow our element…" Alza continued chewing on the piece of stick in her mouth.

"And when we eat too much of them?" Sylvette shook her head. "Gajeel is right, we shouldn't. I seriously think if we consume too much something bad could happen…" She thought back to the awkward patch of scales that she'd seen of some of her siblings, herself included. Silver and teal scales seem to have erupted from and around her belly button like an intricate piercing or tattoo unless you looked closely.

"Like?"

"We could go mad on power"

"I don't get it" Natsu shook his head in confusion_. "_We aint like that Vetty"

"It's just been bugging me that's, all my Dears"

Alza lowered her twig and swallowed the last chunk in her mouth. "Since when? You always drank more water than anyone I know… still do"

"Since we started being able to push ourselves to go into _Dragon Force_…" she gave a concerned glance at each of them before continuing "Gajeel and Natsu in particular, but all of us have. If we take too much we could get affected…in certain ways"

"…Do you think we've become addicted?" Wendy looked at her older sister in fear. "We keep doing this. Resorting to using our elements to fill our hunger…"

"...We aint addicted, I always eat fire and spicy food. It's the best food!" He grinned and pumped his fist in the air. "Though lately I just eat fire…" He stopped and looked a bit baffled before laughing it off. _'It's not that bad right?'_ he reminded himself.

"Girlie aint eaten food in ages. She lives on air!" Gajeel snapped his fingers, finally realising what the smartest of the lot was getting at. _'This is actually quite bad…'_

"No-No I don't!" Wendy instantly disagreed, though she herself couldn't remember her last meal. She kept rejecting them as she filed herself up on air automatically. For her, whenever she was hungry it was hard not to eat when breathing in.

"Nah, the big guy is right, Dee" Alza sighed.

"sure, Wendy kinda just lives on air these days but she aint dead yet" Natsu slapped Sylvette lightly on the back. "Quit panicking if we were gunna die or somethin', it'd be a while back"

"Yea! She hasn't lost much weight at all, In fact her chest-" Wendy punched Alza lightly. Sure, she had a complex but bringing her… _growth_ up? "yeah…umhm hasn't lost weight" she laughed awkwardly, trying to change focus to something else.

"…I Dunno…just it occurs to me that…it feels like normal food just doesn't work on us anymore" Sylvette placed a finger to her chin. "I think that we might have a problem with eating like normal people"

"Because we aint normal! Our bodies don't function like humans but dragons. We _are _dragons!" Alza cheered, also pumping her fist in the air. "Though, This dragon would really like some of that nice smelling stuff~" She sang, pointing in the direction of a bar.

"No you don't" Gajeel pushed her arms back down and turned the hyperactive girl in another direction. "I refuse to ever let you drink. _Ever _again" He cast a longing look back at the tavern, but quickly shook his head. Wendy had a habit of getting drunk on the fumes of beer, and he really didn't want to see Alza, or Sylvette for that matter drunk again. Not after the destruction they caused in the palace the first night.

"But"

"NO" Gajeel growled out.

"Bu-"

"DON'T MAKE ME TELL YOU AGAIN" people stopped and gawked at them for a few seconds before he gave a terrifying glower.

"…And he said she'd _never_ be his kid" Sylvette chuckled to herself as they walked back with empty stomachs.

* * *

As they sat around waiting for the next forty-five minutes of watching longingly at the food everyone else was eating passed, Wendy figured it was the right time to bring up her findings. Or she would have, had Natsu and Alza not stalked off somewhere to do heavens knows what. Instead, she sulked as she tried to guess what they were doing. She could only hope it involved means to cure her hunger.

"You better bring food…" She yawned out to where they were standing, before Gajeel showed her a cat shaped cloud.

"hey just a thought ya know but instead of this, we could be trying to find food?" Alza's arms and legs felt like wood and for once, not because she was using her magic. Her empty stomach made her feel even more tired than usual, and she spent a lot of her time being tired since she rarely slept well. Stupid nightmares.

"Nahh" The pinkette draped an arm on her shoulder, as they walked over in the general direction they agreed upon. Alza gave an 'mmm' in response, she kind of guessed what his answer would be since they could pretty much identify what the other one was thinking before anything was said. After all the two of them were pretty similar; they're personalities, their brash 'run into battle without planning mentality- even some of their fears were identical. The differences they had were being blurred away, as being around Natsu helped the Earth mage lose some of her self consciousness and Alza's constant talking helped snap Natsu out of his 'I'm alone' mentality. That being said though, if _anyone_ spent more than an hour in Alza's company, her voice would definitely let them know they weren't alone.

As the two slayers integrated their way into the audience, going straight to where the guild members stood waiting to support their team on, the Salamander gave his signature grin to his sister figure. She immediately knew what he was thinking, the same thing as she was. They both separated and Natsu sneaked in, sticking to the shadows until he was there unnoticed as he waited to scare the pants off of them all.

Alza, however just let out a interesting mix of a scream crossed with a yell and howl as she jumped out at them.

Okay, so maybe they weren't that similar.

Members of his ex guild screamed and jumped, chaos erupting as they turned to see the owner of that horrific noise. Natsu stepped out of the shadows, figuring it was time to announce his presence. "yo" Natsu spoke up after a few moments of silence. As Mira opened her mouth to speak, a root erupted from the ground and entangled her body until it reached her mouth and gagged her. "Cheers" He grinned at his companion before frowning. "What the hell was all that about, did some sawdust get in your brain?"

"Lily-livered pussyfoot" Her insult sounded quite adorable as she sang it out. "Can we just get this over with?"

"Wanna go, shortie?"

"Bring it"

"Natsu" Makarov interrupted. Sure, their entrance was threatening, until Natsu's old colours were shown and he started bickering with the new girl. "Ask your…friend to untangle Mira at once" Makarov tried hard not to give a pervy grin as he saw Mirajane's state again. He really wished his old brat wouldn't be so immature, but Immature and Natsu went hand in hand according to the elderly mage. Natsu nodded to Alza and she let go of the veins, when Makarov was satisfied he continued. "What are you here for anyway?"

"Give a message to happy" Natsu deadpanned.

"I thought we were doing the element of surprise"

"We were to, till you killed it"

"Hu-huh?..._Whateverrrr_" She moaned. "We got a message for all those traitors to be honest" Alza sang at the old man. He felt like covering his ears. _'Does she think I'm going deaf?' _Makarov wondered to himself, unaware that she normally spoke like that.

"Traitors?" Makarov feigned innocence.

"Cats"

"What cats?" Makarov felt like he was sweating bullets, surprised someone so stupid figured it out.

"Exceeds" Natsu corrected.

"W…erm"

"Listen, Gramps we know that Happy, Lily and Carla are here" Natsu's eye's held a sadistic glint in them, suddenly the master felt like he wasn't facing the same Natsu he used to know. "So we got somethin' to tell em" He looked back at his new friend before continuing. "Popi and Nori if they got themselves wrapped up in this too"

"What would that be?" he gulped slightly, feeling like he was having a staring match with Acnologia.

"We weren't jokin' when we said traitors are gunna **_die_**" He grinned. The members of Fairy Tail fell silent. Romeo peeped from behind his dad, to catch another glimpse at the person he once looked up to. Still did, though now he was terrified of him. His psychotic gaze, the way he could imply murder of his own Nakama so easily, he was far too different from the Natsu Nii he idolised.

"Natsu~~" Alza sang out. "Let's go kay?"

"Sure, Al" Rather than giving his usual grin to Fairy Tail, he gave a killer glower. The members of Fairy Tail shuddered as they trailed off into their own conversation and walked away.

"shall we get food?"

"nah, then Wendy would get grouchy that we didn't bring enough" He yawned. "She's really hungry at the moment. Think its cause she did the dragon force again?"

"Nooo wayy~! I haven't noticed…must be the dragon force, but can't she just eat air? It's how she's been dealing with it lately…" Alza lulled her head back, resting them on her interlocked fingers as they contemplated their options.

"Say that any louder and Gajeel will kill you. His said she's got ano..rack or somethin'"

"Her rack got bigger so I guess his right…"

After the slayers left Fairy Tail's area, Mira let out a sigh before turning to Lisanna. "Our little slayer is growing up without us…"

Romeo winced a little. "…Mirajane nee… You were just tied up…." Fairy tail members could only shake their heads as Mira seemed to ignore her treatment.

* * *

As the two slayers finished their walk about and stepped into their viewing area where their family was, Natsu and Alza had to duck an '_iron dragon's club'_ from Gajeel.

"Yer late" he grumbled out. "Now we gotta rush"

"We got food though?" Alza nervously laughed and placed the paper bag filled with apples on the ground.

"Got no time, Lets go salamander" Natsu quirked an eyebrow at the grinning metal head. "It's our turn now" The salamander shrugged at his wood-scented companion and followed Gajeel out. Alza watched in confusion before shrugging and grabbed an apple for herself.

"Suits me if you don't want em'~" She sang out in the direction they walked off in, a little annoyed she didn't know what the big deal was. "What was that all about, Vetty?"

The white haired girl blushed. "erm…I ….forgot" She looked away at the floor, wishing she paid more attention to her surroundings.

"Forgetfullll~"

"Stop picking on her, Al" Wendy scolded the girl. Alza almost didn't notice her, she was fixated on the sky like she often was, staring at the clouds as they floated by.

"Do you know then, Dee?"

"Gajeel nii and Natsu Nii have a tag team battle"

"Huh who with?"

"Our brothers"

"…Their fighting against themselves?"

"No silly, our new brothers!" Wendy pointed in the direction of the Sabertooth members who were lazily sat around waiting for the fighting to begin. Rufus looked up, feeling he was being watched and sure enough, three pairs of eyes were staring at him, screaming a challenge. He silently hoped the twin slayers would do well, or else he could guess that this would be the last day he would know them. If they lost, he was certain they'd be stolen away by the oddly threatening group of draconic mages. '_you better win…'_ he threatened them mentally, showing his support.

* * *

_A/N Ahh, I'm not even close to the middle yet uwu'' This was a sort of filler chapter as it was the only place I could add them bringing up the exceed bit. I'm starting to have fun writing semi-evil-Natsu...Oops? Thanks for all the Reviews and stuff, I may be slow uploading for a while, I have the problem that my friend who beta reads for me is going to a funneral and then has a hospital stay and I myself have another hospital stay._

_I'm sorry, but please bare with slower uploads, I shall try write as quickly as possible to avoid not having stuff ready to post uwu'' (If I had someone else read it through for me it would be easier, since i'm almost finished Lol) but just bare with me for a while, and please do R&R_


	14. Four dragons

Gajeel and Natsu walked down the dramatically long corridor _(seriously, who's idea was it to make it a good two minute walk to the arena?),_ Natsu clinging onto his scarf tightly as he tried to process all the information he received. Gajeel saw this and rolled his eyes, knowing what was going through his companion's head. Spending so long in his company, it was kind of hard for him not to.

"Remember what the wench said…"

"yea…" Natsu grinned, his posture easing up. "Let's go, Kurogane"

"Cheh" Gajeel returned the grin with his own cocky smile. "Stick to the damned plan okay?"

* * *

The crowds roared as they stepped into the battle zone, shields already being installed around the area on the off chance four lost magic users clashing would cause unforeseeable circumstances. _'Nice they care about the crowd' _The salamander himself wasn't sure if he would get away with fighting uninjured, not the way he was going to do it. He watched as Sting and Rogue walked into play. A few moments passed as both sides visually levelled up their opponents. The crowds seemed to quieten down until a pin drop could be heard.

"Before we start, I wanna call somethin'" Natsu spoke up, lazily rubbing the back of his head as he tried to remember what Sylvette asked him to say the night before. "If we win, you die, if-"

"Idiot!" Gajeel smacked his kin's head. "No, If we win, you come to us" Gajeel looked at Natsu before continuing. "You call what happens to us if we lose"

"…You lose, we kill you" Sting smiled, grinning practically from ear to ear.

"Deal" the pair said, failing to skip a beat. Gray's eyes widened from the audience, shocked that the pair could be so careless as to put their lives on the line, and hoping that if worst come to the worst, they'll be spared. Even if they were the enemy now. After a few minutes the crowd eased down into gentle mummers till once again a pin drop could have resounded loudly.

"READY…." Mato called the time limit and shouted for the match to start….

...And then the fighting began.

Natsu and Gajeel flung towards Sting and Rouge, leaving the sabertooth members on the ropes with a number of high powered punches and kicks. The twin dragon slayers received the blow at full force, to slow to dodge such quick attacks. Natsu made to chase after Sting, watching as he was forced backwards by the salamander's strong attacks.

"ROAR OF THE WHITE DRAGON!" sting yelled, the bright laser shooting from his mouth. Natsu tilted back, watching as it flew past.

"L-laser?" Natsu stuttered, waiting till the roar was finished, keeping an eye on Gajeel's attacks. Rogue made to attack Gajeel with a slash of the shadow dragon, Gajeel forcing the younger guy back with his bladed arm just into the right direction of Natsu. "Cheers!" the pyromaniac yelled out, using Rogue to force Sting back further. "Yo sting your roar was really cool" Natsu grinned, rubbing the back of his head lightly before leaping in the air and casting _'wing beat of the fire dragon' _to knock them both down.

The commentators went wild, screaming and shouting over Team Draconia claw running circles around team Sabertooth, whilst the Draconia Claw slayers were busy going wild at each other.

"Damn' Salamander, how many times do I fuckin' tell yer to stop bein _nice_ to the enemy?!" Gajeel let out a low growl, trying to imply he was in charge (not that the audience would know that fine detail in dragon law of loudest growl is biggest…well you get the picture).

"I wasn't nice! I was just complimenting!" Natsu groaned throwing a half hearted _'fire dragon's iron fist'_ at Sting before jumping out of the way of another attack.

"Same as being nice yer retard" Gajeel trapped Rogue's fist in his own hand, arm covering in Iron scales. Rogue let out a gasp of pain before he wriggled free from Gajeel's (literal) Iron grasp.

"But you're nice in training!" Natsu dodged out of the way, casting his own roar of the fire dragon in retaliation to Sting's wing attack.

"That aint' a real fight!"Gajeel sighed, by now; people were more interested in their bickering than their actual physical fight. Sting and Rogue watched in confusion, accidently stopping and giving them both chance to hit them with their respective claw attacks without missing a beat.

"You're saying this is, tin can?!" all four dragons stopped sparing, pausing for a moment. Gajeel and Natsu shared a glance and coy smile, missed by many apart from on astral spirit who watched them very closely; aware something more was occurring during this fight.

"You've done wrong to under estimate us, Natsu san…Gajeel san" Sting's eyes' now more a dangerous look, almost feral and most defiantly violent. He really could kill Natsu if he lost this fight.

"Did you _really_ slay a dragon with that power?" Natsu challenged him; his onyx eye's filled with defiance.

Sting growled slightly "Yes, with this very hand I killed my dragon-"

"Wasn't he your parent?" Natsu interrupted, as oblivious as a small child. From the audience, Sylvette shook her head, really pitying Sting. Natsu was awfully annoying at interrupting people's speeches.

"It's got nothing to do with you" Sting spoke up, hurting slightly that Natsu didn't quite believe him about the slaying-his-dad thing. "From now on we'll show you the power of true dragons" Sting and Rogue both glowed brilliant white and a colour of darkest midnight respectively as they entered their drives.

"That's the big thing?" Gajeel tried hard to be amazed but…it was just… a _letdown_ really. "_I WAS EXPECTING DRAGON FORCE_" He angrily aimed a punch at Rogue, a big mistake against a slayer in dragon force as well he knew. Gajeel cursed as Rogue's body dissipated into the shadows and sent Gajeel flying.

Natsu stopped, casting a nervous glance at Gajeel and hoping he'd be okay from the attack, giving Sting just enough time to sneak in and cast his "white dragon's claw" on the unsuspecting salamander.

"Shit!" Natsu blurted out as the hit was placed on him, several consecutive punches hitting him.

"Salamander!" Gajeel looked away for a split second, long enough for Rogue to one again hit Gajeel. As the Kurogane flipped and leaped trying to stay clear of Rogues attacks, he quickly found himself back to back against Natsu. Fairy Tail instinctively covered their ears expecting to be deafened by bickering and yet none came. Curious, people watched as Gajeel and Natsu seemed to converse silently, barely above a whisper yet loud enough for their advanced hearing but loud enough for the pair to hear each other.

Natsu spit out a mouthful of blood, wiping away the red liquid immediately. "Come on Natsu san! You call that defence?!" Sting taunted the fire dragon slayer, further forcing him back into a corner. Using their force from their shadow and white drives, sabertooth's twin slayers took the upper hand of the situation, attacking with a series of hand to hand combat blows and claw, wing and fist spells.

From the audience, Wendy's eyes widened as she watched Natsu receive a blow to the stomach, a white _sigil_appearing where the blow connected. "NATSU!" She cried out, fear hitting her at the thought of her brother loosing. Sylvette covered the young girl's eyes, shielding her from the battle.

"Don't look" she commanded. "They'll do fine I promise, but if you have doubt in your eye's they'll _know_. They're fighting hard right now for our sake, remember that. You should believe in your family my dear" Sylvette watched curiously, as Natsu's cocky grin returned…and then left.

"Shh-I-can't-Move" He managed to stutter out.

"Of course you can't, the claw of the white dragon is a holy attack. A body marked loses its freedom"

"…possessive" Natsu grimaced, causing the audience to laugh a little "If this is what's holdin' me back I'll just destroy it" Sting made to make his retort, but instead the blonde watched in horror as his childhood idol burnt away the sigil on his chest.

"W-what?" Sting turned briefly to Gajeel, watching as Rogue was captured by his own childhood Idol."Rogue?!"

Gajeel smirked, hitting him with a iron dragon's club. "Are yer trying to say I'm yer damned prey? Think again, _Ryos_" Rogue stopped and froze, hearing the name he thought was forgotten long ago. "You aint allowed to be anythin' but scared of me"

Sting immediately jumped to Rogue's defence. "Don't act cocky; you seem to think we haven't surpassed you"

"Don't get too stuck on yourselves, brats, an' don't underestimate us" Gajeel countered, the crowds just as enthralled in their verbal battle as well as their physical. With well matched timing, Natsu and Gajeel slammed the twin slayers into the wall, debris flying everywhere from the sheer force of it.

"It seems for this, we'll have to give it our all, Rogue" A look was shared between the twin slayers followed by a nod of agreement and in a blur, magical energy exploded. The commentators cringed knowing full well if the rune knights didn't prepare for it, it would have leaked out and possibly harmed the audience. The combined magic of the four of them would easily surpass one of the wizard saints.

"Dragon force…" Natsu gasped in awe. "You mastered it huh?"

_"Think again, salamander. Their third generation_…" he muttered under his breath to the in awed boy. Using their slight shock as a distraction, Sting and Rogue used their magic to enhance their stamina and jumped up, casting a combined aerial roar attack. The crowd watched enamoured as a large crater was forged in the centre of the stadium.

As the four of them plummeted to the bottom of said crater, Natsu and Gajeel spared a few moments for a smirk. _'So far, so good' _Gajeel spared a moment for a sigh, before going back onto the defensive as the pair of sabertooth's slayers placed yet another attack. The event organisers sent Lacrima-camera's onto their tails, ensuring not a second of the dynamic match would be lost.

Natsu were once again on the receiving end of the attacks, unable to keep up with their opponents in dragon force.

"This is the true power of a dragon" Sting announced to nobody in particular, before sending Natsu flying back into the rocks. Rogue followed suit, sending Gajeel crashing into another wall. After a series of constant attacks, each placing direct hits on the Draconia Claw slayers, the sabertooth slayers stopped to gloat. As sting opened his mouth to make another remark over his 'god like power' (if Gajeel heard that pun again he was going to leave Rogue along to wallop him one) Natsu butted in.

"That's the power of a dragon? Huh…but I already got your battle plan sorted. Each time you take a breath, your movements, even the position you land in"

"h-huh?"

"Don't listen to him sting, his bluffing" Rogue warned his best friend.

Gajeel couldn't keep his straight demeanour and laughed "As if Natsu could do something that involved his brain like that"

"Oh shut up, lightening rod" Natsu quickly turned back to sting, pointing at his feet. "for example, when attacking your pivot foot faces 11 o'clock"

"10 o'clock…" Gajeel corrected him, Interrupting Natsu's flow.

"It's 11…"

"I can let you slide with 10:30 but no way in hell with 11!" Gajeel was about to throw a punch at Natsu for his stupidity but Natsu caught his fist.

"I say its 11! 23:00 is okay to thoug-" Natsu tried to reason with the older dragon, giving him opportunity to correct himself.

"THAT'S A FULL 360 DEGREES" Gajeel lost his temper once more. Rogue and Sting just stared, watching as their opponents squabbled between them once again, it felt more like two against two random people than a tag team battle, but still, their distractions were giving them the upper hand. Natsu sent a set of kicks and punches at the Kurogane, who, as noted by Sting and Rogue, didn't seem to retaliate. Instead, he fell back into an old mining cart, and was sent rattling down the old tracks as he was overcome with motion sickness.

As the commentators once again went crazy, saying how the once two against two was one verse two, Natsu turned at the twin slayers.

"I don't even _need_ Gajeel to win against you two" Natsu taunted, laying the challenge out.

"You expect to win against the two of us in dragon force?" Rogue sighed. "How could you possibly go against us?"

"What I'm doing isn't it?" Natsu gave a sadistic grin; eye's fixated on the pair. "Come at me" he demanded, giving a signal for them to approach.

Sting and Rogue flung themselves at Natsu, full force behind their wing attacks, sending Natsu flying back without even trying to defend himself.

"Ah…maybe I did need Gajeel" Natsu spat out another mouthful of blood. "I can't let him hear that though, I don't like tellin' him I kinda need him around" he gave his signature grin, not knowing that he just said something utterly reputation crushing on the Lacrima-Mic that was currently resounding around the audience. As you can imagine, there was a lot of squeals from fan girls and young teenagers shouting "_OTP_" and "_My new ship!"_

"Admitting defeat?"

"Nah, Admitting I gotta put more effort into it" Natsu grinned once more. "You guys are strong, but still kinda weak. I guess I am to fall back onto that too…" Sting looked at Rogue, but shrugged anyway.

"we'll make this easy for you to go down in one blow then!" as sting placed his hand just above Rogue's, ready to do a unison raid attack, Natsu closed his eyes, concentrating on his breathing. The pinkette felt the world slow around him, heard his heart pounding in his ears. All his scenes seemed to heighten even more, he could hear bugs sneaking around the earth below him, voices carrying from around the shopping areas near him. His nose picked up a meadow, what seemed like an hour's walk away, when he opened his eyes, the world seemed brighter. Colours erupted vibrantly as he saw what most people could only dream of seeing. Fully aware of his surroundings, he channelled all of his feelings. All of his confusion, hurt, love, happiness. Everything he felt, the strongest emotions he bottled them up along all of his scenes, amplifying and controlling his magic power.

"DRAGON FORCE!" Natsu yelled, as magical energies erupted around him in a mighty explosion. The lacrima devices that were airing the battle for all to see exploded upon impact. Sting and Rogue where thrown backwards, crashing into the wall. They sat stunned, watching as Natsu forced his way into the advanced mode. "I shouldn't…be able to do this…" Natsu managed to stutter out, blood pouring from the corner of his mouth. "We do it by accident more than anything…but if we try hard enough we can make ourselves do it" He staggered, charging for a roar attack. "I wanna fight you guys fairly, but that don't matter. We just _gotta_ win… All that matters is you…you're like us" Natsu sent a roar of the fire dragon into the pair. "So we want to offer you a home with us…" having finished his small speech, Natsu raised his hand, covering it in flames as he pulled back to do a "_fire dragon's iron fist"_ attack.

But the attack never game.

Rogue could hear his heart beat in his ears; the world seemed to slow as he watched in horror, wearing a similar expression of shock to Sting. Natsu's flames seemed to implode into his wrist, the vambrace turning into ashes as the bright strands of heat seemed to harden and form into scales. They heard him roar in pain, falling to his knees as the process continued; Natsu could only imagine that this is what eating his own flames would do. They'd change him, like they'd changed his hand.

Natsu quite literally, had the claw of a dragon. He knew that his magic changed him, his lungs, his heart, hell he was even cold blooded like a dragon, but that it could change his appearance? That was…something he never imagined. He closed his eyes, hoping he made his point just in time.

He never expected to win the battle, he could just hear as the commentator called time, Gajeel was out of play for disappearing and Natsu was defeated by…himself?

Whatever the reason, Team Draconia claw lost against the sabertooth's slayers.

"Damnit… that was really lame huh? Well you can kill us now if you like…" Natsu smiled weakly. "but if you don't wanna the offer to join us is always there…"

"We killed our parents…I thought you hated that Natsu san…" Sting swallowed, trying hard to not ask about the…well…clawed arm.

"When nobody believes you about dragon's its lonely…I just want to make sure my family isn't lonely anymore…"Rogue and Sting stared at him, he didn't seem mad at being defeated. He actually seemed impressed by the skill the pair showed today. And just now…he called them family? Natsu stood on shaky legs, before walking over and holding a hand out to help the pair up. "It doesn't hurt so much now…but I guess my secret is out…" Natsu scowled, wondering if his guild noticed the rough scaled patch on him.

They relished in the moment for a few seconds that seemed to last infinity. That was until Natsu opened his mouth and killed whatever family they seemed to be forging. "This really hurts…" He groaned, watching the scales spread across his arm. "But let's fight again sometime okay?"

Rogue and Sting looked at each other, communicating without spoken words as they knew damned well what the other one must be thinking. They guessed it matched what they were thinking. '_maybe it would be fun to join them…'_ and unlike Natsu and Alza, they were actually right in guessing they were on the same thought track.

* * *

The salamander coughed out another mouthful of blood as he wondered if he was actually going to die from over exerting himself like that. _'Vetty will kill me…'_ he shuddered, really not wanting to see the girl.

But as fate would have it, that girl seemed to know when she wasn't wanted by him and just happened to appear; out of spite he was certain. She stood at the edge of the corridor, watching Sting and Rogue with careful eyes as they walked off, barely acknowledging the pinkette. _He. Was. Screwed_. "Natsu…" She growled, infuriated by his little '_performance'_. "We need a little chat about your act just now…" she left the threat hanging in the air before smiling at sting and rogue. "I do hope you join us!" she yelled, waving at them. They turned and did something very unexpected, that Natsu's still super double enhanced vision picked up.

They smiled.

* * *

As Sting and Rogue walked back to their guild, the unaware members congratulated them on their win. Sting scowled. "We didn't win" he kept denying. Sure he had pride, all dragons did. But Sting wasn't the type of guy to take credit for winning something he didn't.

"huh? No, you totally defeated them" Sting stared at the young man, unsure of what his name was. _'stan?... maybe Horris?'_

"No. the Lacrima broke. Natsu san gave up"

"You should have crushed him anyway for trying" the same nameless cocky person insisted.

Sting looked around all the members of Sabertooth. Sure winning the battle (even if victory was given rather than taken) meant he didn't lose face, it give back Yukino. Yukino being one of his only other friends in the guild, beside Rogue and his beloved exceed companion.

And this was it. This was his guild. A bunch of cocky people, most of whom were forever going to be nameless to him, and a woman who was known for being a sadist, a master who would humiliate you for defeat (as if being defeated wasn't enough humiliation…)

This was his guild.

But it wasn't the one he wanted.

* * *

_A/N: So are you surprised?_

_There is a good reason why I didn't let Natsu win, Because Sting and Rogue HAD to see Natsu's scales (Pixie plot stick strikes again!) . and something else, though you'll know in full come the next chapter! I tried to stick to the normal battle as much as possible, I asked two of my pal's and my sister to watch the fight with the four of them several times over, I can actually quote it. But I had to add my twist...for ...reasons._

_(the pixie plot stick is my reason yes yes)_

_Thanks for all the reviews, and I shall do my best to update...well..I can try._


	15. Spirits

As they regrouped after Natsu's battle, the three girls surrounded the salamander and started verbally attacking him at once (though attacking wasn't quite the right word for what Wendy was doing). The small blue haired sorceress checked him over, fussing over his scaled hand and desperately trying to heal it. Even Alza, normally the clown out of the three of them was worried about his wealth fare (though that was more because in her eyes, Natsu was her soul twin, her amigo, her partner in crime and all things prank-related). However, the mothering girl just stared, anger burning in her eyes.

"You complete… you evil… wicked boy…" She tried to force out an insult, desperately hard. It was sort of entertaining for those who where passing by to watch as the girl tried harder and harder to come up with the right words. "I hate you!" she announced before raising her hand and slapping him hard across the face. She turned on her heel, continuing to walk down the streets in the direction of the palace.

Natsu certainly expected the harsh words, but not the violence. Normally, that was Alza's job (and Wendy's part time since she was starting to become more aggressive) and the way their group worked, he really didn't want another violent girl in the ranks (one and a half was bad enough). "I'm sorry" He mumbled, placing a hand to his sore cheek and continuing to trail after her. He wasn't able to slap her back, punch her or anything; unless it was training she was far too sensitive and would take offence if he were to attack her back. Instead, he just accepted her anger at face value, having seen much worse from Erza or Mira in the past.

"When I told you to lose, I didn't mean lose the other slayers!" Sylvette continued her gentle scolding, quiet as anything and yet her words seemed to carry a great deal more impact than if she was screaming at him.

"and we aint lost anything but the games" Natsu placed an arm around her shoulders, noting as her body was shaking with a myriad of emotions he just wasn't capable of noticing.

"…you _told_ him to lose?" Alza raised an eyebrow, completely unaware of Sylvette's latest scheme. "You never told me about _this,_ oh great tactician, care to share?" Alza scolded, she was a little mad that she was oblivious to her plans.

"I told them both to lose" Sylvette shook her head. "Think about it, Dear. How mad to you get when you lose a fight to any of us?"

"Very, obviously!" Alza sang, interlocking her fingers and tilting her head back to look at the sky as she walked. "Why you asking?~"

"Each of us is a sore loser at fighting given that we not only inherited our magic, but also our personalities from our dragons and most importantly, our _pride_ from our dragons"

"So?" Alza sighed. "You harm Natsu and Gajeel's pride over the green horns we were thinking of letting in?"

"We _are_ letting them in Alza, but if we crushed their pride they wouldn't dream of coming to us" Sylvette correct her oldest friend. "I asked Natsu to show off a little, I didn't expect dragon force though"

"But did you see their faces when they saw my scales?!" Natsu defended himself.

"Yes and did you see the faces from the _audience_? You're a fool, Natsu" the water slayer tutted him, shaking her head in disproval.

"Natsu nii may be a fool, but Sting and Rogue have seen _two_ of our dragon force's now. They'll assume we all have them. So what if the rest of the world rejects us further for being freaks? Sting and Rogue certainly won't now" Wendy reassured the bickering pair, easing up the tension. "They'll come to us. For starters, you didn't crush their ego's, the public think they're on a par with us, but Sting Nii and Rogue Nii have worked out they aren't"

"Oh I get it now…" Alza snapped her fingers; glad she didn't need all of it spelling out. "So where did Gajeel go?"

"I asked him to try getting underground…" Sylvette smiled wryly.

"Why?" Wendy tilted her head to the side in curiosity. She was there as Gajeel was reminded of their plan on losing their place in the Grand mage games by loosing (and yet in the long run winning) their fight, but she couldn't recall a reason for him to go underground.

"It seemed that my dearest sister was seeing the ghost of a dragon" Sylvette smiled as the young girl jumped onto the older one and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you…" she sniffed, breathing in her older sister's scent. "Thanks for believing me"

Alza smiled; glad her amigo was out of the metaphorical dog house (at least for now) but also glad that everything _sort of_ went to plan. "…when Rogue and Sting join us, I'm gunna make _sure_ we all win. Don't want them getting cocky about their place in this nest" She announced loudly to everyone present.

Nobody seemed to notice her little monologue though, what with Sylvette and Natsu already onto repairing their friendship and Wendy had shifted off into her own little world and was staring at the clouds. Alza was pretty much talking to herself; however, if she had the mark of a certain guild of fairies, she would have spotted the astral projection that was listening in as well.

* * *

As Mavis recounted absolutely everything to Makarov and their '_bring-back-our-slayers'_ team, a new spark of hope was lit. So it seemed for some reason, they didn't even want to be part of the magical games but most of all, it looked like an opportunity for some answers had arisen. Mostly, he wanted answers to the biggest question _"what the hell are they up to?" _which had been eating away at Makarov for some time now.

"Erza, Gray, Lucy, Mirajane" Makarov listed, looking at each member in turn. "I need you to find out whatever Gajeel has found, think you can do that?"

"They'll sniff us out" Gray shook his head. "Soon as that's done, they'll attack us for breathing near them" as soon as the ice mage spoke out, everyone fell into silence as they tried to come up with ways to avoid their old Nakama attacking them.

"Hmm…we could use Wendy's bag to our advantage now. I know we were planning on using it later but?" Mira suggested, raising her hand in the air for everyone's attention.

"That's a good idea, Mira!" Lucy smiled, wincing a little in pain.

"You sure you should be coming with us Lucy?" Erza winced, still furious at Wendy for letting the blonde girl end up like that.

"I kind of owe Natsu, he brought me to the guild, so we should rescue him from those girls" The celestial mage smirked and nodded in approval of her plan. Gray however, was still dubious about all of it. He loved Natsu as a brother, but what if his brother was happier in that guild than at Fairy Tail? He'd never consider getting his brother Lyon to join Fairy Tail simply because he was so happy where he was. Was Natsu different to Lyon?

Mavis smiled, assuming that each of them bore similar thoughts to Lucy. "I can use Fairy magic to make your presence undetectable"

"Then let's go!" Lucy exclaimed, jumping in the air in enthusiasm.

"In that case, follow that dragon slayer!" Mavis laughed, pumping her fist in the air, casting a Fairy shield around them. "This should last around two hours" she explained, as each member stared at their golden glowing aura's that surrounded them. "Just make sure you aren't seen and then you'll be fine" she reassured, before following them out onto the streets and most of their way to outside the Palace.

* * *

For the first time in a while, Gajeel noted, Wendy was _actually_ acting like she used to when they first met. From what he remembered of their brief conversations, Wendy was always very polite and calm to most people with a fun energetic air about her that only a few got to see. But then, it seemed to disappear when Fairy Tail sent them into exile and she explained her past, the whole miserable lot of it. Abandonment after abandonment seemed to be the majority of her 12 years of life (_if it actually was 12 years, they were starting to have their doubts since they felt time pass slightly different to most humans)_ In reality, she never really had a childhood since she had to grow up so fast, so seeing her act childish was almost a gift in his eyes.

He recognized her as a nervous person, so when he strode into their rooms and nodded at Sylvette, pointed a thumb at the door and walking back out (Gajeel's sign language for _'get your butts up I found something_') Wendy was literally a energetic child right now, jumping and yelping and well…just acting young and carefree.

After convincing Natsu to give her a piggyback, Wendy used her puppy-eye-power to make everyone run so they'd get to see whatever Gajeel found soon as possible, unknowingly being followed by four fairy Tail mages.

* * *

After ages of running after a set of _very_ quick dragon slayers while trying to stick in the shadows, the Fairy Tail mages were tired. They stayed as far back as possible, trying to catch their breaths but petrified to breathe too loudly on the off chance they heard. It was almost impossible for them not to vocalise their surprise, giant bones resting everywhere. _The bones of dragons._

At first, the slayers were all comically freaking out, wondering if their dragons where part of the various amount of bones. That is, until Gajeel snapped them out of it reminding them how old these bones must be. That was, according to the Fire, Air and Earth dragon slayers enough reason to act manic and go hyper at the proof that dragons exist right in front of them. If only they had people to view it… Mira smiled sadly, realising they messed up big time for not believing Natsu when he was a child.

Wendy was drawing a large magic circle, after calming down from her manic (almost tribal) dance that she was doing while laughing and crying and mumbling how she knew she wasn't crazy_. 'You just proved you are…'_ Lucy cringed, feeling embarrassed for the girl, positive that it was the impact of being away from civilized people for so long that sent her this way.

"How longgg?" Alza half cried out, half moaned. "I wanna see some dragons Wendyy Channnn~" She extended the words in the annoying way she normally did, trying to emphasise her boredom.

"Quiet" Gajeel snapped. "Let girlie concentrate, Weed" and so silence followed before Natsu repeated what Alza did just a few moments before and Wendy slammed the stick down, breaking it with sheer force.

"DONE!" she yelled, pivoting around to face the others. Erza pushed everyone closer to the ground, hoping the girl wouldn't see them from their hiding place. Her eyes seemed to focus on the rock they were hiding behind but she quickly turned away again. "Ready?" she gulped out, her calmer personality taking control again.

Sylvette laughed, walking over to the young girl and pulling her in to a warm hug. "Silly child, don't worry, it'll be fine"

"I'm not… you're right I am" she sighed.

"You can do it, I _know_ you can!" Natsu grinned, ruffling her hair. Mira was trying so hard to suppress a squeal, finding their family moment far too adorable. It was like the Reality plays that Lucy watched on her Lacri-Vison devices.

"Okay…" Wendy smiled, before walking into her magic circle and taking a deep breath. She felt the air around her shift, taking control of the area, marking her territory. The air carried her voice as she recited _'milky way'_. The four fairies covered their mouths as lights floated like small lanterns, a single one drifting down gently. The bones that surrounded them rattled manically,

"WENDY! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Natsu yelled, reaching out the girl.

"I'm searching for the souls of dragons…" her voice was almost monotone and emotionless, it was scaring the lot of them. "Their wandering lonely…but…their energy is so tiny It's hard to-" before she could finish her sentence, her eyes snapped open, the same fear displayed in her eyes as when she had nightmares. "GOT ONE" Her eyes closed in concentration. Green energy spun and collected like a maelstrom in the empty space in front of her, before a giant green clawed leg tore through the rift. In a matter of seconds, a giant ethereal dragon was stood in front of them all.

And then the dragon slayers did something the Fairy Tail mages never expected. They bowed.

The giant green dragon that was in front of them laughed manically before letting out a loud roar, trying to coax a reaction from them.

"Sorry" Sylvette stood, followed by the others. "You have nothing but the children of dragons before you" She announced, dusting off her clothes. The dragon spirit took no notice of her words, and instead looked around it's suroundings.

"so…where to begin…" Wendy mumbled, not really having come up with a plan this far ahead.

"OOhhh let me!" Alza grinned, placing a hand over her forehead trying to act like a fortune teller. "Are you, oh Great Spirit from beyond aware you are _dead_?" she finished up with a number of '_ooo'_ noises, but ended up getting punched by Gajeel for being an idiot.

"She's a dumbass, ignore her" He told the dragon, before giving the short mage a lecture in proper etiquette.

"Can you tell us your name?" Wendy asked, watching him with admiration.

"I amZirconis, also known as the Jade dragon" he announced with pride. "Young Slayer, the spell you used belonged to grandeeney, the sky dragon yes?"

"Yes, I am Wendy Marvell" She announced with an equal level of pride in her voice. "I am daughter of Grandeeney, the queen of the skies" Wendy grinned in a fashion scarily like Natsu. Mira cooed lightly, in awe of their little family set up, but was quickly shut up by Erza's hand over her mouth.

"Ooh where are you" the Giant beast chuckled. "ahh your cute" Erza cringed from her hiding place, hearing the old dragon hit on Wendy.

"YOU GET AWAY FROM WENDY" Natsu yelled at the dragon's spirit, running in front her body.

"No way, I'm eating her" The Jade dragon threatened. Natsu's possessive brother instincts all seemed to kick in at once as he threw all etiquette and knowledge he had on dealing with dragons to the wind and aimed a kick at the spirit. His foot went hit nothing but air.

"wah?" Natsu stopped kicking after a few tries, staring at his foot in confusion.

"I can't harm her, stupid species" Zirconis moaned in defeat. "Humans are stupid" he shook his head.

"We are no humans! We are the children of dragons!" they all seemed to speak as on in that moment, the Jade dragon stared, stunned. Each of the Fairy Tail mages looked at each other in turn, almost proud of how their dragon slayers matured but a little bit of worry that they seemed to have renounced their human nature's completely.

"well then" Zirconis' laugh bellowed out across the cavern. "Looks like we have some things to talk about, Children of my kin!"

* * *

_A/N sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger, I feel mean but oh well? ^^ I hope you enjoy this chapter and the others to come! _

_I hope you enjoy!_


	16. Tears

Zirconis listened carefully as each of them introduced themselves, naming their parents. He took great enjoyment in winding up Alza, saying how he remembered Gaia and whilst she got riled up in excitement dropping a insult of her scales not being as green or shiny as his. Wendy stifled a laugh as the flower eating girl followed Natsu's strategy and tried to lash out on the giant spirit. Obviously, she failed.

Zirconis immediately was bombarded with a pretty unanimous question. "Any idea where our parents are" as each slayer asked in an almost unison of where is Igneel, metalicana, Grandeeney, Gaia and Vesikas. Once again, the jade dragon teased them before letting them down. Soon it grew into something of a lesson, Zirconis seemingly interested in knowing how their studies progressed before their parents abandoned them before giving a quick pop quiz. Gajeel never imagined he would be getting quizzed on the basic rules of mating season… especially not from a dead dragon. It was just too weird.

Just as Sylvette was about to ask an intelligent question, why there were so many dragon bones lying around, Wendy felt it time to ask the ethereal being a question.

"Did _you_ have a slayer Uncle?" she looked up, eye's wide with concern. "Or are we really alone now?"

"UNCLE? Eh since your cute you can call me that" He laughed out. "No slayer for me, I hate humans"

"But we aint humans, we're in-between" Gajeel reminded him.

"That's why I can talk to you" Zirconis bobbed his head slightly staring at them all. "Aren't you lucky?"

"Yea…right.." Alza huffed out. "Lucky for me, you're gunna go soon" Gajeel scolded her, like normal after it sort of became his job too but she ignored him, still sore from the dragon constantly bullying her. "What! He sucks"

"Your mama didn't think that" and immediately, it became too awkward for Sylvette to ask the question that was burning on her lips. Gajeel blurted out a loud Giihii laugh and she could only blush a deep scarlet as the dragon laughed out from their reactions (or lack of reactions and confused glances in the cases of Wendy and Natsu).

"….Dad?" Alza questioned her former bully with intrigue and a level of innocence that reminded the ever watchful fairies of their beloved Salamander.

* * *

Sting walked along the riverside, sighing heavily his hands interlocked behind his head as he tilted it back to gaze at the sky. The twin dragons suffered a huge blow; their childhood idols didn't beat them- much worse. They showed pity. They threw the fight almost to say _"you couldn't win against us" _and that made the blonde haired slayer madder than if he lost.

All this rage made him want to fight again. Sting could feel his blood boiling in anger and anticipation, waiting for the next meeting with the person he looked up to for so long. "I _will_ defeat you…Natsu…." He swore, using the sky as his witness… and the group of people trailing behind him. He turned back for a moment, looking at each individual in turn. His lifelong partner, Rogue wore his typical stoic face and stared back at sting, both of their exceed partners trailing behind him and at Lector's side, Sting's girlfriend, Lia, smiled attentively at him.

Being in his mate's presence was normally soothing. He admired the blonde for her feistiness, but also being gentle, something that most girls seemed to lack (though to him, he knew people such as Minerva and considered them normal females). It wasn't a widely known relation yet, he was always busy beating the crap out of strangers who seemed to slight him so never really had time for the romance side of things. Sensing the worry emitting from the short girl he felt the need to comfort her somehow. "I'm glad you're here" he smiled with an uncharacteristic gentleness before returning to his usual cocky expression, tilting his head back into his interlocked hands once again.

"That's really sweet of you" Rogue sniggered out, before receiving a punch from the blonde lady sting meant to be talking to.

"Thanks, I'm glad I'm here to" She smiled back; Sting felt a slight flutter in his heart. "Do you feel a bit better?"

Sting made to open his mouth but instead the shadow dragon slayer spoke up. It was rare that he did, but right now Sting could clobber him for ruining his moment. "Yes" Rogue nodded. "Thanks for asking"

"Lia, _why_ did you bring Rogue with us?" Sting complained, glowering at the shadow dragon for ruining the romance.

"He looked lonely…" she replied after a while of thinking about it, her finger tapping on her chin.

"You're dating me!" Sting sulked a little.

"Yes, but you're always together, normally it's you who brings him along"

"You make me sound like a dog" Rogue sulked, kicking the floor slightly.

"Fro thinks so too!" Everyone turned to the Exceed, watching as Lector nodded making '_mm'_ noises In agreement with the wannabe frog.

Sting shook his head before continuing to walk in a straight line, vaguely aware of his companions still following him but only half listening to Lector and Lia fighting something out between them. Whilst he was glad for their company, the rage never really dissipated and on some level he could tell from the casual distance everyone kept from him, they all knew it.

* * *

Natsu stared at the giant green dragon's spirit, Alza stood next to him with a similar expression of confusion and disbelief. After Sylvette finally interrupted Alza's sudden "are you my daddy" fight with Zirconis (who was pretty sure he didn't hatch her, and it took a lot of time and effort for Sylvette to convince her that she was born to human parents, not from an egg) she finally asked why there were so many dragon bones.

The dragon's answer was not what they expected.

"There was a war?" Natsu frowned. "Igneel never said nuthin' about that" He had a hard time trying to recall everything his dad ever said, he learnt a lot in a short length of time, but something like a war? _With_ dragons? That would stick in his mind.

"How did this escape history?" Alza Interrupted Natsu. "Not like it's something humans would forget"

"And when have you ever been around humans long-" Gajeel stopped his case of foot and mouth soon as her awkward history with the humankind (and other mages) came into his mind.

"Well fine!" She pouted. "But it's not like _youuuuu_ told us, so obviously _youuuuu_ didn't know!" She counted, elongating her words in that annoying sing song voice.

"Are you going to listen to me or not half breeds?" Zirconis grumbled, on some level he felt a little fond of these mongrels in front of him but dragon's, all dragons, hated to be interrupted whilst saying something interesting.

"Sorry" They all mumbled in unison, feeling awkward that they forgot how to act around dragons.

"As I was saying" Zirconis paused for a second, trying to remember everything he said. "There was a war started, different dragons took different sides. I was _against_ humans; obviously" He snorted before giving an accusatory glare at those before him "your parent's were on the other side"

"As if my dad is that old!" Natsu huffed, pointing at the spirit. "HE AINT AS OLD AS YOU GRANDPA!"

"HOW OLD DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS ARE?" Zirconis countered, leaving Natsu confused. He never really knew how old he was… and suddenly Natsu was lost in his thoughts, eyebrows furrowed and finger stroking his chin in intense thought. Brushing it off as a casual windup, Sylvette came up with yet another question slightly more intelligent than the turn this conversation was starting to take (it was one of the days she really despaired at her fiery friends attention span).

"Is this where dragon slayers came to be?" She made eye contact, refusing to bow down. If what Zirconis was saying was true, then she was against him. The pale girl would oppose anyone for the sake of her beloved mother.

"yes" He agreed. She smiled smugly; before the beast continued "Well observed for a peanut brain" another laugh sounded out from the cave and the Fairy Tail mages were glad of the loud noise allowing them to giggle a little. Watching her face fall like that was quite funny.

"Okay…" She nodded slowly, reviewing all they were told.

"it was a grave mistake though…" He shuddered. "Slayers are too strong, far too strong for ones so small" he shook his head. "You said your parents left you, so you haven't come close to your potential yet your powers are still so developed" slowly shifting from one leg to the other (an act of habit more than comfort since he didn't really have need to move, being a ghost and all), he continued. "No, the biggest mistake they made was the generation of slayers they created, one in particular, the slayer Acnologia"

Amusement filled his face as he watched the slayers jump up to attention, a mixture of indescribable emotions filling their faces.

"That bastard…" Gajeel hissed, hands forming into hardened fists.

"That abomination is a dragon, not a slayer" Alza growled out "It fucked over my family" Wendy looked at her, a little pleased that she would get so upset over something for them, it was a sign she wouldn't leave her.

"That _abomination_ was once a slayer. That _abomination_ then became the dragon king" Zirconis confessed, watching as they each recoiled in horror. "he bathed in the blood of over a hundred dragons, even those who wished for peace. He used his magic too much and turned into a dragon himself"

"Does that mean…" Alza's eyes opened wide in shock.

"NOO!" Wendy sobbed out. "I don't wanna become a dragon!"

"_WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?"_ Natsu yelled shaking Alza dramatically.

"N-na-That isn't possible right?!" Gajeel stuffed his hand into his pocket, desperate to find a screw to chew on to stop his anxiety. Becoming a dragon? He loved dragons but that was too much.

"Wh-What if mother doesn't recognize me?!" Sylvette cried out, holding herself as her body shook with sobs, tears streaming down her face and all traces of beauty and elegance gone. "I've already _gained_ scales!" She pointed to the intricate ones around her belly button.

"M-me to…" Wendy gasped, One by one, the others agreed.

"ohh nice scales!" the ghost complimented. "Ahh I'm going to have to go now, Nice talkin to you, my kin. You aint bad for half breeds" Zirconis laughed out, highly entertained by their reactions.

The trauma and fear the slayers were facing was far to amusing for Fairy Tail, and immediately Lucy chuckled loudly, her girlish laughter echoing across the cavern. Erza shot a crippling look at Lucy, causing her to stop, and yet, the damage was done. In their distraction, they failed to notice Zirconis starting to disappear till Wendy cried out about losing the connection.

"Wait! Please!" Wendy begged, trying to draw out more energy. "Uncle!"

"To late, I can't stay any longer cutie" he shook his giant head once more and with that, he was gone.

"He left…" Wendy fell to her knees, power ebbing away from her. "Like everyone else"

Natsu strode over to her side, placing a strong hand on her slight shoulders "Dee, he was dead…"

"Yea…It just feels lonely now Uncle Zirconis left…" She shook her head, trying to remove the attachment she formed to the spirit. "This is how it's meant to be, just us five"

"Yea…but…ARE WE GOING TO BECOME DRAGONS?!" he started to yell again and Wendy started to stress.

"Guys…we aren't alone…" Sylvette whispered before she turned on her heels, striding around the cave. "WHERE ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELVES!" fury radiated from her face and for a moment, Gray was certain he was going to wet himself. He punched Lucy's arm for landing them in such a horrid situation.

That was, until a team of the royal guard appeared. Not so screwed, Gray comforted himself.

"You won't turn into dragons"

"_Nooo_ way! You don't know that!~" Alza drawled out. "Maybe were already dragons!"

"No…you're not" The male guard assured her. "Still quite human" she stared at him, he seemed so very… normal.

"I'm not human" She deadpanned.

"ah, Obviously, no human could be so inhumanly annoying" a foot soldier muttered under his breath. Alza's jaw dropped as her super hearing made her catch the comment. He could only gulp as he remembered the general warnings they were given over the slayers. However, the group of slayers weren't the only ones who heard the comment. Since they lingered near the back, Lucy caught the comment and immediately started sniggering.

This time, the dragon mages heard her.

Wendy walked over, a growl escaping her, wind flurrying around her hands as they curled into fists. With a punch, she shattered the rock in front of the Fairy Tail mages, "Spies" She yelled out to her friends. "Why can't you just leave us alone?" she looked at Erza, Gray, Lucy and Mira in turn, eyes glossy with tears. "Why?"

"Wend-" Gray started, however, Wendy's older sister come mother appeared by her side, fangs bared.

"I warned you…" her voice was deadly calm. "I don't think you understood clearly, but should any hurt come to my beloved family, then the cause of hurt will die…" she explained slowly, taking a careful grasp of Wendy. Natsu turned; eye's full of hate burning as he smelt the torturous fragrance of Wendy's tears. He took slow steps over to the girl's side, holding the young slayer's hand when he reached her. If the fairy tail mages weren't already feeling intimated, they did now. the earth slayer had turned, watching with interest at the interaction between her family and the Fairies.

Gajeel however, ignored the fairies. "How the F-" Sylvette glared at him, stopping him from swearing. "How'd ya know if we can or can't turn into dragons" The idea seemed barmy to him, however, he couldn't deny they'd all become a little more scaly since they ruined their bodies during training. Dragon slayer magic took a harsh toll on the body, turning their blood cold, giving them fangs and tougher nails, changing their senses and even their internal organs (at least according to Wendy's beloved Grandma Polyuscia). It changed them completely, so why not turn them into a magnificent beast that they took on aspects off?

"Because Zeref helped Acnologia become a dragon, it wasn't just his magic that did it" The brown haired male explained. That was enough to snap the slayers from their silent confrontation with the other mages, turning to the brown haired guard. "If Zeref wasn't alive... well then you wouldn't have had the trouble with Acnologia" Natsu and Gajeel looked at each other before looking at Wendy. _'Those three are the most effected by_ _Acnologia_' Mira reminded herself. Or so she would have if it wasn't for the look that crossed her fellow white haired girl's face. Anger seemed to hit her at the mention of Acnologia's name, Mira made a mental note to talk to master about this. Somehow, it seemed she too had history with the dragon that brought their guild so much misery.

"I don't get what you're getting at, but you work for Hisui don't cha?" Natsu questioned with a dangerous look on his face.

"Yes…" The muscular man replied slowly, a careful look on his face.

"Ya think ya can kill somethin' immortal?" Gajeel raised an eyebrow. "To kill a dragon…which might as well be immortal…?"

"No…" He said once again. "We'll go back in time to defeat Zeref-" every single member of Draconia claw fell about laughing. The knight scowled.

"Sorry sorry…" Sylvette smiled gently. "Just…you see, time is natural, dear. You can't change nature" a fond expression etched itself into her face as she recalled the lessons her mother gave her about day and night.

"Your call coming with us" He shook his head. "Then you'll understand" in a matter of seconds, they were rounded up and their hands positioned behind their heads as they once again walked alongside armed guards. It was starting to feel like a daily ritual for them. Erza suggested they'd take this opportunity to escape, however Spears were aimed at them. "Sorry, you overheard. You have to come with us to… especially you, Lucy Heartfilia"

As the two separate guilds were rounded up and forced to walk alongside each other, Natsu fell back into step with his old guild. After a few deadly silent moments, he final turned to them, anger burning in his onyx eyes.

"You'll pay for Wendy's tears" he swore, before returning to his place next to Gajeel and Alza.

* * *

_A/N soo my beta reader went and out sicked me, joy. Now I can blame my late chapters on her._

_Yes, sting has a girl. for a very good reason (and because it's gunna get angsty, so a little humor is needed._

_Trust me, I'm a pixie. _

_Also! please check my profile for a link to Alza and Sylvette's apperances~!_


	17. Loss

Natsu and Sylvette shifted uncomfortably, trying to feign surprise at the large ornate door in front of them. After being escorted away to be debriefed alongside Fairy Tail, they were all told the truth behind the grand mage games, or _grand magic heist_ as Alza quickly named it. Each of the slayers listened with half interest as Arcadios rattled on about Lucy's magic and keys. 'nout to do with us' Gajeel kept insisting, however Yukino seemed to disagree strongly telling him to keep quiet whilst he got to the bit that would concern them (though her orders lost a lot of punch when she started apologising).

"…and so the plan is to travel back 400 years in time and murder Zeref before he can become immortal" everyone stood shocked, staring at the Arcadios as he finished explaining the _'Eclipse plan'. _Sylvette stared at the gate before talking with her companions and ignoring the two celestial spirit user's conversations.

"What about the dragon world?" Sylvette asked, voice cracking a little. "I thought we would have a world for the dragons… we were promised…"

"Vetty, I told youuuu~!" Alza sang, though her voice sounded fed up. "Human's aint trust worthy. At all" she lamented, head tipped low.

"I just wanted to believe…" Sylvette sulked, a small frown on her lips.

"fuck it" Gajeel 's gruff voice spoke up. "We don't need em', just each other, right?"

"Yea" Wendy backed up her older brother, pumping her small fist in the air (a habit for which she was dubbed 'mini Natsu' by Sylvette).

Whatever was being discussed between Yukino and Lucy had obviously finished, since they heard Gray's voice breaking through the girly chat about stars and well, stuff that just bored the slayers nowadays. As the Ice make mage brought up the coincidence between the day of the solar eclipse, the 7th of july and the dragons disappearing, Natsu finally found he could agree with his former rival. He noticed it a while back when they were trying to work out what time of night it was, but left it since it didn't really affect them.

However, the Salamander was left disappointed as the Royal army barged in and rained on their little meeting. The two guilds were forced back together as they were rounded up once again that evening. Gray felt Natsu's warm back pressed against his and for a moment he was brewing up insults to fling at his old rival, a twinge of sadness when he realised they would be ignored now.

"You're Hisui's dogs" Alza snapped her fingers, recognizing the uniforms.

"You dumbass's wanna rumble?!" Natsu challenged them all, standing back to back with the earth dragon slayer. They watched a few armed guards lean back a little,

"Surrender peacefully Captain Arcadios" A small elderly man commanded.

"Minister of defence, what's the meaning of this?!"

"That is my line" the Minister shook his head before continuing. "Leaking secrets of a top secret plan and military secrets to outsiders is abominable" he scolded.

"Yet all of these people have a critical role to ensure the success" Arcadios continued to defend his decision to tell them all, making everyone want to leave, it felt very uncomfortable watching them squabble and reminded them all of a awkward married couple .

After a very uncomfortable few minutes, everyone turned as they heard one line in particular. "ARREST LUCY HEARTFILIA AND YUKINO AGRIA TOO!"

"Cheh" Natsu shrugged, watching as Lucy started yelling and Gray and Erza started to fight for Lucy's corner. "Doesn't affect us, let's go, guys!" the salamander's fist erupted in flames, only to hear Arcadios' late warnings.

"No don't use magic-!" whether it was the talk of time travel or the fear as they saw Natsu, the ace of their family fall wobbly to the effects of the Eclipse gate time seemed to slow for the members of Draconia Claw as Natsu's eye's widened in shock and his body collapsed to the ground.

"Nii!" Wendy yelped, jumping to his side in seconds with plans to use her healing magic to restore him to full health.

Just as she raised her hands to the positions, Sylvette's own hands were placed on Wendy's tiny shoulders. "Careful, that abomination seems to remove magic" Wendy nodded, instead cradling Natsu's head in her tiny lap, swearing to herself she'd fix him and make him better as soon as she could.

"Well observed, Miss Featherwick" All eyes turned to the minister again, Fairy Tail stood protectively near Lucy desperate to free her of her captors.

Gajeel let out a small growl, worry over ruling everything as the salamander lay lifeless on the ground. He knelt beside the two girls, making the mistake of unhanding the young peppy and slightly crazy earth mage. As soon as he let go of his iron grasp to go to his brother's side, her metaphorical 'leash' was released.

"Come, let's go. We have the two celestial mages. Leave him. Wizards who can't use magic aren't a threat to our kingdom"

"But wizards who are" Alza stared wide eyed at the old man and Gajeel instantly cursed his mistake. "Anyone who hurts Natsu will pay" Erza watched the scrawny girl carefully assessing her. She often seemed wild and untameable, a bit mad really. However one thing she did notice was how much she adored her guild mates, too much if anything.

"You're lucky that Hisui needs you five-"

"She can die for all I care!" Rage got the better of the upbeat earth mage and flurry of anger at her precious brother's current state and the Princess's constant requests "She asks one more thing of me then I'll _kill_ her myself-" and with that, she was taken back to the dungeons before she could try to take back what she said.

* * *

Natsu shifted, now filled with energy once again and desperate to have a go at the royal guards for knocking his energy for six. He was also desperate to rescue his (metaphorical) twin sister, since he learnt of her fate from Wendy. Soon as he tried to move, Gajeel bolted him to the bedpost and read him the riot act over why he shouldn't go in and rescue her dumb behind straight away.

Natsu still disagreed with him. Still, when Sylvette agreed that they should leave Alza for a while, everyone calmed a little. If she was willing to let her companion of just less than fourteen years to suffer (all be it at her own hands since they knew how bad she was when she was bored), there wasn't much to worry about. So instead, Natsu got fired up and wanted to beat some behind for Alza's accidental self inflicted injuries, since it only made sense that she'd end up getting some, she was just so…well, _dumb_.

Alza moaned as she cradled her aching legs. Apparently kicking metal bars _really_ hurts, however the simpleminded slayer didn't seem to catch onto it the first time so after several more failed attempts Lucy finally spoke up to her from the cell next door.

"Why don't you just quit?" the blonde sighed, fed up with the repetitive cycle of '_crash, clang, ouch'_ constantly going on next to her.

"ooh! The rats are talking to me! I'm going insane!" the obviously deranged dragon freak sang out. Sticking a finger in her ear, Lucy tried blocking out the noisy companion.

"Listen, I don't like you, you don't like me, but we've been here for a few hours. Wanna try get on yet?"

"How many times do you think I've escaped this dungeon so far? I've done it a few, I'll do it again" She bragged, before once again yelping in agony as her fist bounced off the metal.

"An how many times did you get set free?" Lucy retorted, finally coming up with an augmentative response to her annoying dungeon-mate.

"…are you a mind reader?" Alza asked, convinced the girl used magic to figure that out.

* * *

Gray sat at a table with Mira and the three 'former' (though apparently they never left) exceed members. He rocked backwards and forwards, chewing on an ice cube as he tried to work out everything that happened in the past few hours.

After Lucy was arrested the team pretty much didn't stop running till they reached the bar that Fairy Tail was, for lack of a better term, exploding. After a lot of gasping and Mira sobbing a little, they managed to recall the events to Makarov and the ethereal spirit of Mavis (who also cried out considering it her fault this happened). Immediately, rescue plans were brought fourth placing Gray in charge of filling in Natsu's old position of chief knight in shining armour at rescuing Lucy. Juvia was obviously not impressed.

And so, Gray mulled over everything that happened trying to figure out the best way of rescuing his friend without getting on the wrong side of the royal family. It would have to be a sneaky operation and for that, he knew he'd need Mira. Other than that? Well, he'd need to talk to the still hysterical Mavis…once Laxus and Makarov stopped her wailing.

* * *

Sting stood on the balcony of their suite, the third room to the left of the inn they were staying in. unusually, the young man was moping. Heavily. It was a general rule that he had to be cocky and narcissistic, that was the image he gave people and he was pretty fond of it. But still, he couldn't get Natsu out of his head and that made him more than a little sore. So he took the evening as a little time out to angst over everything that happened since his arrival at the games.

That was until another presence interrupted him. "You're not supposed to be here master will get mad"

"oh please, His already mad at you" The blonde girl sulked. Sting turned to the girl in question, Rulia Deroll , who happened to be his girlfriend. There wasn't much to say about her, she wasn't amazingly powerful (at least not compared to him) and she was average to most people. Average height, average appearance (though Sting would challenge that to the death) but he liked her and that was enough for Sting.

"Does he want to see me?" He turned to her, casually eyeing her up. He was worried about the master's reaction all evening, hoping like hell his sort of victory would be good enough. That was until Rogue appearance and snapped him out of it with a coy sigh. "Yea yea, let's get going. Come'n Rogue"

When they arrived to the common room it seemed every member of sabertooth was already there waiting patiently to laugh at the self assured twin slayers verbal (and perhaps physical) lashing. Lia stood at the sides, smiling at the pair offering them some sort of support when they occasionally looked at her.

Seconds passed by when they were both eyed up by their master, heads bowed low. Rogue almost longed for the berating to come so he could sneak back into the shadows and away from view. "Sting, Rogue…What the hell was that?! You bragged over how you would defeat your opponent, Sting. Rogue. Yet your opponents defeated themselves!"

They could vaguely hear Rufus chuckling away at himself, finding this whole thing amusing already. Everyone watched in silence as he continued to rant on for almost ten minutes most feeling entertained about their Nakama's scolding.

"Your pathetic! How you dare to bare the mark of Sabertooth I'll never-" Jiemma's stopped speaking, flinging both the slayers to different sides, crashing them into the walls. A sickening crack resounded and Rogue opened a hazy eye, trying to focus again after the harsh blow.

"Wipe it out! Remove your guild mark, my guild doesn't need weaklings like you!"

"Okay, okay, Master! But Sting kun and Rogue kun did their best!" Lector started to tremble, walking away from Lia and Frosch to be noticed by the tall old man. "This time he lost, but I'm proud of Sting kun!"

"Lector…" Sting stared at his companion, amazed that the small cat had matured so much.

"I think that people can also get stronger by experiencing failure" tears welled in the blonde dragon slayers eyes as his small exceed friend enthused every word. "Sting learnt a lot this time, so I think you should-"

"who are you?" Jiemma stopped the emotional moment short, eyes burrowing into the cats head.

"ah…." Lector froze, regretting his decision straight away. "Come on master I have the Sabertooth's cre-" Jiemma exploded, power ebbing around him as he glowered at the Lector even more. Lia feared the worse- Lector was in danger and if the master carried on, he could really get hurt.

"and why would the likes of a cat wear the proud mark of sabertooth?!" Jiemma rose his hand to Time seemed to freeze as Lia rushed to get Lector away from the rush of magic hurtling towards the exceed.

"LECTOR!" Sting yelled out, only to see the flash of blonde hair pass as his beloved pushed the exceed out of the way. "N-no…"

Lector's eyes grew wide as he watched his saviour disappear. "Ru…lia…." He shook his head swiftly. "no you're not supposed to…Sting kun! Do something!"

"Rouge…!" Frosch desperately tried to cling onto his partner sniffling madly. "Lia is gone?" Rogue looked around, seeing horror on most of their nakama's faces. He snorted, they never really noticed her anyway, to them she was a passing face. She was one of his best friends, Sting's…. he looked at his sort-of-twin.

"Sting…" Rogue sniffed out, holding Frosch tightly.

"What an eyesore. I suppose this is what I get for allowing cats in my guild. To think I missed…" Jiemma growled out, preparing another attack on the exceed.

"S-Save me!" Lector mewled out, his lithe body shaking in fear. "Sting kun!"

"Leave Lector alone! Give me Lia back!" Sting screamed out, raw emotion filling his voice. Rogue winced, concern for his friend welling up.

"Keep the racket down, Sting" the old man demanded

"what did you do?! What the hell did you do?!" Sting screamed, flying into a white rage. Rouge realised he could have stopped him, but right now Sting had full rights to do what he was planning.

And just like before, time seemed to stop for the members of sabertooth, as they watched once of the ace mages _murder_ their guild master.

* * *

_a/n Pixie is back! sorry for the dely uwu! Please forgive multiple P.O.V here, it's all coming togehter (at least this arc) so! guess what happens from here? ^w^!  
_

_also! thank you all for the lovely wishes, I am now back to being me, sort of ?  
_


	18. Truce

As Fairy Tail prepared for it's final day, half of the guild was horrified to know that not only Lucy but Gray would also be missing participation. Instead, Laxus would spearhead the team and Juvia would also be competing (though she wasn't best pleased to hear what her Gray Sama's special mission was)"So you know the plan?"

"100%, First" Gray tried to feel enthusiastic but a lump formed in his throat and this unshakable feeling that he was filling In for Natsu's place. "Good luck to you on this side. Let's go, Mira"

"and us!" the blue cat chimed in. "We'll help Lucy to!"

"Just hurry up"

* * *

"Hey Wendy" Natsu Poked the bluenette's bony shoulder, cautious not to awaken the Kurogane sleeping beside her. Whilst they all tended to sleep near each other, Wendy was by far the worst needing someone to be with her for fear she'd wake up alone. thankfully she wasn't heavy, so when she bunked in with Natsu he could move her off of him. "Wendyyy"

"mmmmmm what Nii?" she slowly sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes gently. "What's up?"

"I've been thinking…." He watched as his little sister quirked an eyebrow in intrigue before continuing "What'da say to us going to rescue her?"

After a moment's pausing, Wendy sat up fully, shuffling away from Gajeel. "Lets get going"

* * *

"I never expected this to happen" Lucy murmured under her breath.

After a few moments of silence, yukino finally muttered a response "I really am a bad luck magnet…"

"Why'd they lock you up?" Alza blurted out, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You were one of them, Minivette"

Lucy groaned once again, pitying herself and her fellow celestial mage for their company. "Now look here you, her name is Yukino. Not Minivette, Vetty.2, Vet-"

"It's okay really…"

"You're not answering me" Alza persisted. "Why would they put their comrade in down here?"

"Because I wasn't of any use"

Alza huffed in annoyance. "Human's are the worst"

"Why don't you think you're human?" the blonde questioned, trying to pass the time.

"Hmm?" Alza shrugged "Because I'm not" and once again Lucy groaned.

"Yeah okay, miss I'm-not-a-huma" a loud clatter stopped Lucy's speech midway.

"NATSU!" Alza yelped as she smelt out her brother figure...and someone else?

"Natsu?" Lucy questioned.

"Flame brain?" Gray looked up in surprise, not expecting to see his old rival here.

"striper, Mira, Tratiors?" Natsu pointed at them, struggling to find the right words in all the confusion.

"Gray and Mira too? The exceeds?" Lucy's eye's widened.

"Hey, Alza nee!" Wendy yawned out.

"Wendy?" Gray and Lucy asked together, not noticing the bluenette clinging onto Natsu's arm.

"What's going on?" Yukino raised her hand, struggling to keep up with what was going on.

"we came to rescue Alza, I think Mira san and Gray san came to rescue Lucy san" Wendy recounted for the ex sabertooth mage.

"sorry, Al, we were pretty late huh?" Natsu rubbed the back of his head lightly. "Come on, Wendy. Let's get going before Gajeel does that annoying thing"

"You mean work out what we're doing?" Wendy sweat dropped, amazed by her brother's dimness at times.

"Yea, that" And so, Natsu got to work melting the bars.

"Well if we knew you were going to be here we wouldn't have bothered" gray groaned, hoping nobody would suspect something fishy happening downstairs.

"I'm only here to help Alza" Natsu huffed as he bent the bars enough for the dragon slayers narrow physique to slip through.

"Huh, well we'll take the upper ground and free all three of them" Gray remarked, freezing the bars.

"Just let me out" Lucy groaned in despair.

* * *

Alza let out a whimper from the solid yet squishy weight crushing her. "'is this the weight of my sins? Is this my punishment for dying away from the forest?" the girl dramatically whimpered. Their escape from the dungeon was short lived, the floor collapsing under them and leaving them stranded in a dark, cold cavern far away from any signs of life. Today, was not a good day for any of them.

"Ahhh, safe landing!" Lucy enthused from on top of the tree hugging dragon slayer. "I REALLY thought we'd be goners then"

Natsu stared at the ceiling of the cave they found themselves in, stuck in a daze. "Need a hand?" Gray's velvet voice sounded from his right.

"Not from you" the salamander forced himself up from the ground, wincing in pain a little from the dull ache their fall caused. "They had a trap floor?"

"Seems so" Wendy almost wailed. "Gajeel will find out"

"…goodbye world" Alza lamented, still in pain from the heavy weight crushing her but more scared of her aggressive older sibling.

"Why was there a trap floor though?" Mira looked around, noting everyone who was still in the area. The three exceed's were piled in a corner with Wendy, Gray hovered awkwardly near Natsu (Mira had to cringe for the poor teen who was desperate to get back to their friendly rivalry) and a very annoyed looking feral dragon slayer was being crushed by their own celestial mage. Yukino stood awkwardly, not really _fitting_ into either of the two fairly defined groups of fairies vs dragons.

"The whole castle is like a labyrinth. Good lucking finding your way out" Natsu shrugged before shoving Lucy off of his childish friend. "Let's go guys"

"Where do you think we can go?" Wendy mumbled. "Can you see any doors? The airflow here is really…weird. There isn't a way out"

"Nonsense!"

"I hate to say it, but maybe Wendy is right…" Alza grabbed hold of Natsu's sleeve, eye's cast down to the floor like a child in shame. "Natsu what are we gunna do? I need to go home…"

A look was shared between the Wendy and Natsu. No words were needed for their conversation as they already knew exactly what the other came up with.

Natsu sighed and placed a gentle hand on top of Alza's hair comfortingly. She was bound to react badly, but she'd have to comprimise to see her beloved forest again. The salamander threw caution to the wind and said his mind anyway. "Yo fairy Tail, let's make a truce?"

* * *

Sylvette woke to Gajeel aggressively shaking her arms. "What?" her eye's snapped open, he was never rough with any of them, only Natsu and even then it was because he was a pain to wake up. "What's wrong?"

"They've gone" Gajeel thrust his thumb behind his shoulder. "We aint been careful enough we practically let em go"

"oh no…" Sylvette sat up. "To get Alza?"

"No shit, to find the magical toadstool of doom" the Kurogane sighed, wishing a little he could be more optimistic like the water dragon slayer. "What the fuck did yer think they were gunna do?"

"Alza has always been a handful…I'm sorry they got into trouble because of her…if we hadn't met-"

"Shut yer damned trap and be happy for once" Gajeel snorted. "Remember yer the first people to accept us as we damn well are, Natsu's a handful- Wendy too"

"So? We-"

"So we have fun looking after them right?"

Sylvette bit her lip before holding her hand out for help up. "Well we better find them soon hadn't we? Lets give our handful's a hand"

* * *

_A/N sorry short chapter, but I'll be updating a lot faster after this!_


	19. Team up

Alza stared wide eyed at the pinkette. "A truce…A …truce with humans?" Natsu cringed, covering his ears as the small slayer ranted on at him. "TRAITOR! YOU KNOW HUMAN'S AREN'T TO BE TRUSTED!" Alza screamed, hitting Natsu's chest repetitively. The salamander sighed, placing a hand around her slight back and pulling her into a hug, her wretched sobs falling into his torso. "I thought you understood…"

"I do, Al. but we aint gunna get home unless we work together, you know that. We can talk about this later on okay?" He sighed. "Yo Ice princess, what'da ya say? We stop this whilst we get outa here?" extending his free hand to the ice mage, Natsu gave a cocky grin at his old rival.

"sure, better than dying here" Gray shrugged, desperate to maintain his cool demeanour around his fiery brother figure. He struggled to hold back his grin though, glad to have a chance to talk to Natsu once more.

Mira looked at the earth slayer, her face a bright red colour. _'Poor girl'_ Mira shook her head, wishing to reach out to the obviously frustrated Teen-

"is that what a naked guy looks like?" Alza finally mumbled out, her innocence shocking Mirajane. Not such a teen, after all.

Natsu turned in horror at the teen that corrupted his innocent sister "DAMNIT ICE PRINCESS, AT LEAST KEEP YOUR PANTS ON!"

* * *

Gajeel stood at the door of their room, chewing on a fork as he watched the normally calm woman walk around in a daze. "Nothing we can do, you heard 'em"

"They weren't there…why….they aren't there" She mumbled out, continuing to pace as she did so.

"Damn straight" He snorted, fed up of hearing her state the obvious.

"If they've left… " Sylvette frowned, blinking back watery tears.

Gajeel swallowed the fork. "Wench-"

"What? I'm just…." She gurgled out a sound stuck between a laugh and a sob "Curse this life…curse those who leave" She lay down on her bed, the soft mattress still feeling alien to her despite their ever increasingly long stay. "Curse this bed and that lacri-lamp and that weird thing that squirts water out of taps-"

"Yer overreacting, dumbass" Gajeel scoffed. Whilst down to earth and calm it was indisputable the water dragon slayer had a flare for being emotionally dramatic, turning every little hurdle into some sort of death-trap they'd have to defeat. Whilst fighting a bear on rollerblades or some other ridiculous threat.

"Maybe, my dear, maybe" Sylvette's eye's looked almost iridescent as she gazed out of the window listlessly. Gajeel stared at her; she looked so beautiful at times like these... If there was anything beautiful in sorrow incarnate, something she was accurately depicting. Again. "I'm tired Gajeel, surely we could go home soon? There's nothing for us to fight for here, they wanted our magic nothing else…certainly no chance we could see our parents or any other dragon's for that matter"

"We saw one-"

"It was dead"

"…still, better than nothin' ya saw it yerself, the look on their faces"

"I saw the look on your face dear, it most certainly matched theirs"

"yer one to talk, ya nearly cried" she opened her mouth to protest his words, but found herself lacking the ammo to continue their banter. It was true, they were all so desperate and seeing Zirconis' spirit made it all feel so much more real. Like they weren't lost in a wasteland trying to figure out why their parent's abandoned them or if they were even alive.

"…I can see why Sting and Rogue killed their dragons" yet another lamented sigh came out of Sylvette and Gajeel couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Over react-"

Sylvette interrupted him quickly "I'm not. I just… is it all pointless? We came here with the promise that we'd fight dragons or something, not get our magic drained during pointless games and now, Alza got not only Natsu but Wendy in danger"

"…Ya know something wenches? Pop's once told me if I wanna find somethin' badly I should search in myself first" The Kurogane made a fist and thumped his chest, emphasising his point in his normal blunt way.

"You're saying your dads inside you?" They stared at each other for a few moments, a serious and intense atmosphere falling over them like a blanket.

Before Gajeel cracked and cackled a loud '_Geehee'_ laugh In disbelief. "yer…right… like _that_'s possible. Nah, I'm sayin' we shouldn't act like this is the end. We'll find 'em, get back home and start training again"

"…yea. Until the end, that is" the albino said between giggles, forcing a smile onto her face before extending her slender fist.

"Until the end" He echoed, bumping his own into it.

* * *

"Hey…does anyone else feel that were lost?" Happy asked, looking from left to right. As each other member of their group inspected the environment, agreeing upon the seemingly same as always scenery. Gray however, was interested in his former rival. His cool gaze following the salamander around as he blatantly tried to avoid all contact with Happy.

"Gray…HEY STRIPPER YA LISTENIN?" Gray shook his head, focus coming back to him too late. All eye's were staring at him as if he was the head of the fairy Tail Side of the team.

"uhm-"

"Natsuuuuuu stupiddddddddddddd" Alza whined out. "we are losttttt L.O- errm…" Alza paused trying to remember the next letter in that annoying word.

"You can't disagree with that" Gray raised an eyebrow.

"well duh, so what you think we should do?"

"Uhm…" Gray scratched the back of his head, desperate for something to come to mind. "Well there isn't much we can do splitting up would cover more ground but get us more lost and alone…" Gray shrugged. "sorry, nothin' I can think of... hey Yukino do you know about this place what with being a royal guard and all?"

Finally speaking up for the first time in ages, she shook her head. "No, sorry…"

Lucy made a humming sound before suggesting her thoughts. "Splitting up could be best, Stupid it may be, however we could find a way out and report back"

"Lucy san that's a stupid idea" Wendy deadpanned. "We're looking for a way out, not somewhere to die…"

Carla snorted, annoyed at her dear Wendy's refusal to look at her. "Not like you could find your way back without someone hand holding anyway"

And so the small white exceed sparked up all the tension between the two groups. Natsu and Alza let out low pitched growls. A warning for everyone to 'back off'

"What is that all you know how to do, Natsu?" Lucy snorted. "You've gotten dumber-"

"Scuse me?!" Alza yelled out. "Cause we don't speak human we're automatically dumber?!"

"No but you sure as hell are acting it!" and so the two girls once again started to fight it out in a similar fashion to Gray or Natsu back when they were under one (fairly peaceful) roof.

"LUCY HEARTFILLIA! ALZARIAL!" Wendy raised her voice only a few octaves at the earth mage and Celestial mage but it was enough to make them separate in surprise. "Thank you for defending me guys, but right now we need to work together, both teams" She glowered at each member of Fairy Tail in turn. "Forget what's happened; let's try get on long enough to get out of here alive"

"Wendy…" Mira gasped, surprised to see the coy girl being such a peace broker. The bluentte then did something she never expected to see directed at one of them again. She smiled, honestly.

"Let's get out of here, okay everyone?" she extended out to everyone. When someone as cute as Wendy did such a gesture, it was hard for everyone to deny her thus making it a fairly peaceful (if not slightly tense) walk around once again.

Happy glanced around the same greenish gray rocks for the billionth time in their long walk. "Hey….Mira…I'm hungry"

"Honestly happy!" Carla sighed heavily showing her disapproval. "How can you think of your stomach in a time like this?"

"We have been travelling for what must be hours" Lily defended his blue fellow feline, shrugging lightly.

"No it hasn't?" Natsu looked really confused at the idea. "It's been like five minutes right?" Lucy stared at him, her mouth slightly ajar in surprise that the salamander had no concept of time anymore.

"…you think it's only been minutes?" Gray laughed a little. "Sorry Flame brain but it's definitely been hours…"

"…Right yea-"He started, trying to find a way to change the subject. "Think we can all get through that?" He nodded to a gap in the wall. A sort of brake between the solid stone walls.

"I don't see why not" Gray went to the front of the group, squeezing through the cool rock. "Careful, it gets tighter at the other side…" and so each followed suit, Natsu slinked through the hard rocks, followed by Yukino who was helped out by both Natsu and Gray as if it was some sort of stand offish "side with us". The two female dragons with them walked past, having no problems with the narrow gap due to their slender figures. Mira passed through facing no difficulties; however Lucy became challenged by the size of the gap.

"uhh…guys… a little help?"

Alza started laughing manically, finding it impossible to feel sympathy for the girl who called her names. "youuu cannn do ittt, blondyyy"

"Just help me out, washboard chest!" the celestial mage whined. Gray shook his head in despair before walking over to yank her out. Lucy pattered herself down before looking down at the Shorty in front of her. "you should really grow up, you know, in both ways"

"…I can't grow…" the dragon slayers voice caught in her throat and she felt her face burning in shame. "Lets go" She mumbled before humming a melody in her head. Lucy stood next to Mira for a few moments, staring at the girl as she all but skipped off_. 'I guess it makes sense why she hates being called a freak?'_ Lucy mused over what the almost childlike girl implied.

Gray and Natsu stopped in unison, looking over each member of their group in turn. Apart from Wendy's clattering knees as she tried to bite back her fear, Happy's grumbling tummy and Lucy's exasperated sighs as she lamented over missing the games, everything seemed to be fine.

That was until Yukino's pretty face paled, and she let out a cry of confusion and shock, one hand covering her mouth whilst the other one pointed behind the two males. "_Arcadios Sama_?!"

Natsu could hear everyone's heart beats rasie as they each turned to see the strong willed man collapsed on the ground. All eyes were on the fallen knight as he tried to mouth out a word.

"_Run_…"

* * *

_A/N_

_So chapter 400 has influenced my plot somewhat all in a good way though so don't worry! Looking forwards to the next chapter as I've been itching to do the fighting with the Executioners for some time, so many funny funny things I thought about with it! but mostly because after that's all done, Dragons! I will update "how I met my Dragon" soon, but I was writing something very special for you all so ended up leaving it on hold a little bit, still! the next few parts of that are ready to be Beta'ed soon. _

_Also, Dear R.  
Thank you for the 'suport' passed on to me through M. See, I didn't make the same mistake.  
I'm glad someone reads my work and find's it interesting, hearing that made me smile.  
I'm also glad M will always have a friend like you for after my story is finished.  
-Pixie. _


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